Halloween Apocalypse 2026 萬聖末日啔示 2026

THREE illustrated discussions on selected horror films by film scholar and software artist Héctor Rodriguez LaserFrames Cine Club season #1, programs 1-3: Halloween Apocalypse 2026 萬聖末日啟示 | THREE illustrated horror film discussion sessions (in English) This three-day sharing session will screen classic horror films, _The Dawn of the Dead_ (1978), _The Invasion of the Body Snatchers_ (1978), and _The Stepford Wives_ (1975) that revolve human beings losing their humanity and becoming other: living dead, hollow shells, automatons, or uncanny duplicates. We will give extensive background about each of the films, including their social context and their production and reception history. We will pay a lot of attention to the way the filmmakers address the question of what it means to be human. Although the creatures that appear in these films are in some sense not the same as us, the films also show that their arrival offers a kind of mirror to human beings, which forces us to confront what it means to be human and its limitations. We can think of these movies as an "apocalypse" not only in the sense of an end of the world or an end of humanity but also as a revelation, showing us something about ourselves that remains hidden. The discussion will also draw on newly published historical research about some of the films. The final discussion of _The Stepford Wives_ will explain the influence of feminist theory, particularly Simone de Beauvoir, on the novel and its film adaptation in light of recent scholarship about Beauvoir. We consider Beauvoir's emphasis on the distinction between immanence and transcendence as crucial to the films. We will also relate The Dawn of the Dead to Bergson's philosophy of laughter. All three films will be shown on LaserDisc. Two of them will be shown in open matte versions. The other one will be letter-boxed.