Week 4: Old Weird and New Weird

I haveThe Walking Dead and The Living Dead and watched Cabin in the Woods and Insidious. I have questioned myself how the old weird differ from the topic ‘Monster’ we discussed during our first week of class. In the description the old Weird was known from the Weird Tales Magazine that included range of stories appeared dramatizing uncanny experiences, tales of the monstrous, or experiences with supernatural. So I wondered if Frankenstein also fell under the Old Weird. 

The two readings are basically about the main characters living under a condition where most people are infected and have turned into a living corpse. They are simply a survival story and surely is where the protagonist experience an uncanny event where they try to find a solution to the deadly disease. In these two readings about zombies probably fall under the term ‘weird’ because they do have their own category called the ‘zombies’ or the ‘undead’ which may be pretty much different from the term ‘monster’. Zombies were surely influenced by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein since it also include a story of the undead, however people don’t find it the same due to the fact that zombies are born through science fictional methods such as radiation, mental diseases, or viruses. 

Insidious is a supernatural horror film and ’supernatural’ fall under the term ‘weird’ as well. There are many people who believe in it and who doesn’t that it’s something people may question. If this falls upon the this week’s category, then many of the Asian horror films may also fall into this category as well due to their use of supernatural themes. However, in many of the supernatural films shown in the United States do include demons. That may be something people may find it weird since something unusual is happening around. Honestly, in reality when something moves by itself or just abnormal things happen in front you, many people may react with ’that’s weird’. Then slowly move to ’that’s creepy’ or ’that’s scary’. Surely, something that we simply aren’t familiar with are weird. 

Cabin in the Woods is just includes both what the two readings and Insidious has. The movie includes all different kinds of creatures from an undead to a demon, giant animals, aliens and many more. At first sight, this movie may look like a movie that’s just about some supernatural events happening in this cabin to these group of teenagers, however there’s much more to it. And that is something most people would find it ‘weird’ and ‘funny’ as they continue watching the movie. It was quite unusual for something like that to be what’s behind the scene of the teenager’s death that this movie definitely falls under the category of ‘weird’.