Post by tav7623 on Nov 14, 2014 15:00:52 GMT -5
Recently I came across this fairly new (it's now in its 4th year) and (as far as I can tell) lesser known horror magazine called Diabolique and thought I should post a semi review/discussion thread of the latest issue, issue #22. Now what exactly is Diabolique all about you may be asking? Well according to its creators Diabolique "explores every aspect of horror film, literature and art. The magazine brings fresh perspective to subjects old and new, foreign and domestic – from ancient folklore and Gothic classics to contemporary film releases and modern literary gems." and after reading through the most recent issue (Aug/Sept 2014 aka the Feminist/Pregnancy Horror issue) of the magazine I'd say that's a fairly accurate description. The issue I read featured articles celebrating the bicentennial of Irish gothic horror & mystery writer Sheridan Le Fanu who is best known as the author of Carmilla and how his seminal work would go on to inspire horror films such as Vampyr, Twins of Evil & The Vampire Lovers. This issue also contained a "feminist" reading of the (inaccurate) depictions of Elisabeth Bathory (aka "The Blood Countess") in horror cinema 400 years after her death, discussions about the pregnancy subtext found in Polish filmmaker Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 horror film Possession & David Cronenberg's The Brood, a (fairly) brief opinion piece/semi discussion (it's about a page long) of French horror film Inside, and an interview with French horror writer/director Alain Robak about his "controversial" 1990 pregnancy horror film Baby Blood as well as his thoughts on the fairly recent (2000's) wave of "New French Extremity" films.
Pros: It's well designed and I found most of the articles to be well written & researched (though there were a few imo that weren't)
Cons: Some of the articles aren't (imo) well written (the Bathory one comes to mind) and I found them to be a bit too confusing at times. Also most of the authors in this issue are pretty bad about not giving the reader a spoiling warning before spoiling parts (if not all) of the films they discuss in their article as they tend to assume that you have already seen these films before hand.
Overall I kind of enjoyed reading this magazine and plan on checking out future issue even though I found a few of the articles in this issue to be poorly written and the numerous contributing author's blatant disregard of spoiler warnings annoying. All in all I'd give this issue (#22) is a 7 out 10 and feel that if you are looking for a more intellectual approach to horror then you just might find yourself right at home with Diabolique magazine, but if you find articles about say the dark side of Rock n Roll (issue 15), the evolution of Horror Comedy (issue 17), Celtic Folklore in Horror Cinema (issue 2),) or the examination of the mysteries and dysfunction of the family unit in contemporary and classic horror cinema (issue 20) to be more than a bit boring then lets just say this magazine might not be your cup of tea.
P.S./Disclaimer: I should also mention that the issue I read (#22) contained some graphic images of blood, gore & female nudity and should be considered NSFW