Readers of this blog know that I am a firm believer that, even in these agitated times, genre fiction remains an interesting way to conceptualize what is happening around us. For instance, if the first half of 2020 filled screens and streets with imagery straight out of horror films like George Romero’s The Crazies and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, things have recently verged closer to the dirty sci-fi of Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop and, notably, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days. That said, some of the most visceral elements that come to my mind derive not from supernatural thrillers nor from futuristic science fiction, but from more low-key exploitation. In particular, it’s hard not to think of the police as the German Shepherd in Sam Fuller’s White Dog while the sense of asphyxiation by an encroaching far-right was disturbingly captured by Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room or even by Kevin Smith’s Red State (just to stick to color-based titles).
And speaking of horror, here are some gothic reminders that comics can be awesome:
