HFX and the Monstrous

Now that my dissertation is almost over, I have decided to use it to re-work my feature on horror effects (HFX). Cheating I know, but so far I have only traced specific HFX artists and their famous creations. This has all been great fun yet it means I have breezed over some crucial discussion.

What about the origins of HFX? How has it progressed within the horror genre? and more importantly, how does the use of HFX actually construct the monstrous? Whilst I have broached this topic - exploring the likes of Dick Smith and his use of foam latex or Tom Savini working with, well... whatever he could get his hands on - what does this practical construction of the monstrous infer symbolically? Does the impact of HFX extend beyond the filmic image? Is there more to such unnatural and fantastical creations than meets the eye? 

To explore this my feature will now be broken into five parts:

Horror Origins and the Birth of HFX - a brief history of the horror genre and its embrace of HFX

"You've gotta be fucking kidding": Traditional HFX and the Monstrous - a case study of John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) to explore how HFX constructs the monstrous

Old Scares and New Technology - a trace of the horror genre post-1982, with a specific focus on remakes and the introduction of Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) technology. 

CGI and the Monstrous - a case study of The Thing (2011) to explore how CGI constructs the monstrous differently

An Aesthetic of Monstrous Astonishment - the final part in which some conclusions shall be drawn

Hopefully all of this will then provide a pretty comprehensive study of HFX, and perhaps of the horror genre as a whole.

So stay tuned - part one will be up very soon!