Each week, we ask a member of the college grad student community to share 3 picks related to one of their passions. This week, Salomón “Salo” Rodezno, a third-year doctoral student in the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education (HALE) program, shares 3 favorite horror films:
One of my favorite hobbies is watching movies, and I especially enjoy horror films. This love started with oral storytelling in my family, which continues to be a main method that we communicate knowledge, curiosity and folklore. As a child, my favorite non-scary cuentos were the ones involving family spirits, those family members who were dead but would still visit us in (day)dreams in California. Mami especially instilled a belief that our espiritu transcends human flesh, walls, national borders and all construct notions of human time. As such, I visited my abuelitos in dreams… and this is something I still do today.
Now for the scary stuff: my siblings and I were also incredibly interested in any stories involving the supernatural and the paranormal. We were on alert whenever someone talked about el cucuy, la sihuanaba, la llorona, la carreta chillona, aliens and hauntings. These stories and legends instilled in me a belief in a world beyond what we see, and this value continues to inform my worldview and approach to scholarship as an artist, researcher and storyteller within academia.
Horror stories are never just about scaring someone: these stories are rich with critiques of artistic, intellectual, social, political, economic, religious, and other forms of ideological, interpersonal, institutional, and intrapersonal oppression AND liberation… and if we can’t have liberation in education, what the heck are you doing here then?
In short: horror films teach. They teach us about the various forms of oppression, how to question authority, how to be strategically curious (e.g., don’t go in the basement if you hear a noise! White people: I’m looking at you), and how to live in a world that isn’t always perfect. Horror films allow us to escape our daily worlds, but also return to our lives a bit braver perhaps. And most of us reading this are in graduate school… can you think of doing anything braver than that right now?
In this spirit and as a spooky treat, here are my three favorite horror films for you to enjoy with family and close friends.
- Candyman (1992; Directed by Bernard Rose; Runtime: 101 min.): A murderous soul with a hook for a hand is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster’s myth. Do you dare summon the Candyman by calling his name 5 times? Candyman. Candyman. Candyman. Candyman. Candy…nope!
- Prey (2023; Directed by Dan Trachtenberg; Runtime: 99 min.): Naru, a skilled warrior of the Comanche Nation, fights to protect her tribe against one of the first highly evolved Predators to land on Earth. I recommend watching Prey in the Comanche language.
- The Babadook (2022; Directed by Jennifer Kent; Runtime: 94 min.): A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children’s book titled “Mister Babadook” manifests in their home. Be forewarned: ‘Cause if it’s in a word, or if it’s in a book you can’t get rid of the Babadook… you’ll see him if you look”