In a post on CrimeReads, Meagan Jennett suggests a group of horror films and writing that will make you a better storyteller. For one of her recent teaching opportunities, Jennett built out a course examining clips from horror films in conjunction with texts. Her choices and the elements she examined:
- Week 1: Setting the Scene. His House (Remi Weekes) and The Witch (Robert Eggers), paired with Sonora (Hannah Lillith Assadi) and The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
- Week 2: Imagery. Midsommar (Ari Aster) and Gretel & Hansel (Oz Perkins), paired with ‘The Bacchae that Euripides was Too Scared to Write’ (Khushi Jain) and ‘Young Goodman Brown’ (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
- Week 3: Voice. Lake Mungo (Joel Anderson), paired with ‘Recitatif’ (Toni Morrison)
- Week 4: Building the Background. The Wind (Emma Tammi) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos), paired with Persuasion (Jane Austen) and ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ (Edgar Allan Poe).
- Week 5: Body Grotesque. Suspiria (Luca Guandagnino) and Saint Maud (Rose Glass), paired with ‘Poetic Sexploration’ (Tawnya Renelle) and The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones).
- Week 6: Creating Space. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (Oz Perkins) and The Wailing (Na Hong-jin), paired with ‘The Two Headed Calf’ (Laura Gilpin), Whereas (Layli Long Soldier), and Girl With a Pearl Earring (Tracey Chevalier).
- Week 7: A Story is an Onion. The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass (Mike Flanagan), paired with Nel’s monologue from The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson).
- Week 8: Putting it all Together. You Won’t Be Alone (Goren Stolevski) film and script
