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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 12h

THE WIND (Victor Sjöström, 1928) The howling void

a still image of a pale white horse from THE WIND (1928)

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 12h

Thank you so much! I try to do my best.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

For my essay on HALLOWEEN, I looked at Carpenter's form, and how it does so much of the heavy lifting in cementing the legacy of Michael Myers as a cultural boogeyman. www.patreon.com/willowcately... Sample paragraph below:

Carpenter and co-screenwriter Debra Hill are more interested in the primal qualities of monstrosity—the ghost story, the campfire tale, the boogeyman—but it is more than a little ironic that Halloween begins with an homage to Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960). Powell’s film was one of the very first slasher films to consider the psychological ramifications of a murderer, and he used the camera as a vessel to evoke the voyeuristic impulses of an audience who had a growing desire for blood and guts. In the early 1960s, mainstream English-speaking horror films were still usually taking place inside of the castles and the crypts, but with stronger implications of dissection and desecration in the form of Hammer’s pseudo-blood-soaked re-imaginings of Dracula and Frankenstein. Powell had been a director of great class, and respect in England, but was blackballed for Peeping Tom, and it’s numerous P.O.V. shots that put the gaze of the camera directly behind the eyes of a serial killer. Carpenter does the same thing to open Halloween. On a quiet, fall night, Michael Myers walks around the perimeter of the family home, ventures inside, dons a clown mask, selects a kitchen knife, walks up the stairs, and promptly stabs his sister again and again and again. Through the purview of the camera, we can see that he doesn’t focus on the anguish of his sibling, but of the repeated gesture of the knife going up and down. His upper-class parents arrive home that evening, and find that their son has undergone a transformation into a monster. A crane shot follows that pulls away from the home, with mother, father and child, all frozen in position. Rob Zombie’s Halloween opens with an inversion of this same shot, but instead of moving away from the home, he ventures inside. His vision was granular, heavily detailed with psychological and emotional foundations and imbued with realism. Carpenter’s is no less detailed, but the gesture of the camera moving away from the home suggests a ...

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I am kicking off a series this month on the HALLOWEEN films. I am going to write about most of these over the next few weeks. I want to try to answer the following question: Why has Michael Myers sustained in the cultural imagination? www.patreon.com/willowcately...

patreon.com

Monster of the Week: "Halloween" (John Carpenter, 1978) | Willow Catelyn Maclay

I’ve decided to write about most of the Halloween films this month in the spirit of the season, because a question keeps plaguing me: “Why d

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The greatest conflict that we've ever had in our home is that my husband wants to start calling Kermit "grandpa" in a few weeks when Kermit turns 10, but I am adamant that Kermit is "baby".

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

KERMIT KERMIT KERMIT KERMIT KERMIT KERMIT

This is Kermit, god's favorite orange tuxedo cat as he crushes a duck plush while laying on top of a table

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

patreon.com

Monster of the Week: "Halloween" (John Carpenter, 1978) | Willow Catelyn Maclay

I’ve decided to write about most of the Halloween films this month in the spirit of the season, because a question keeps plaguing me: “Why d

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

They had a big puffy blow up Michael Myers lawn doll & he was bordered by numerous Santa clauses. I told him "hang in there buddy, I still believe in you. This is your time. "

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I only go to Wal Mart a couple of times a year, and I'm always sad that their DVD section keeps shrinking and that the sweeping plague of Christmas decorations continues to swallow up more and more of the calendar year.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The video is also available over on youtube if that's more your speed. Sorry for spamming this. I worked on it a very long time & I just want to get it out there. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wDU...

youtube.com

Video Essay: "Loving the Monster" | CAMP MIASMA | MUBI

YouTube video by MUBI

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I'll be publishing something on John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN for my horror column on Monday or Tuesday.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Prior to the shenanigans, it really does seem like The Dude lives a perfect life in The Big Lebowski. He smokes weed. He bowls. He has close friends. All of these things are good.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

trev and I were literally talking about the same thing earlier haha

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

My newest reader's choice poll is up, and contains a multitude of significant horror films that I've never written about before at length. Options include DON'T LOOK NOW, CURE, THE DEVILS, THE VANISHING and much more. www.patreon.com/willowcately...

a still image of DON'T LOOK NOW. The image is of a little blonde girl at the edge of a body of water. She's wearing a red leather coat, and her pastoral homefront can be seen in the wide frame.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Earlier this year, I stated that I was working on something comprehensive about CAMP MIASMA. This is a video essay on the history of trans psycho killers and how CAMP MIASMA uses that history for subversion and reclamation. I hope you enjoy it. mubi.com/en/program-n...

mubi.com

Loving the Monster

Watch truly great cinema. Wherever you are. From iconic, award-winning directors to emerging auteurs. Transformative films from all over the world. Stream Now. Download to watch Offline. Start your fr...

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Hell yeah. This is what I'm talking about

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

They cannot even conceive of it. They're out here spending 500 million dollars on Captain Bozo and the Fascist Wizards.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Adopting the mindset that I don't need the studios when there is 25,000 Jess Franco movies to watch.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

My decision to only watch exploitation movies from the 70s and micro budget vimeo films by trans people going forward is looking smart.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The video is also available over on youtube if that's more your speed. Sorry for spamming this. I worked on it a very long time & I just want to get it out there. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wDU...

youtube.com

Video Essay: "Loving the Monster" | CAMP MIASMA | MUBI

YouTube video by MUBI

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

CAMP MIASMA is now available on VOD if you somehow haven't already seen it. I'm happy with how my video essay turned out and I am also encouraged that people seem to like it. Thanks <3

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Mike @jacobeantragedy.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

An incredible essay. Need the hour long cut.

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Brandon Lennan @lennfilm.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Love this dive into Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’s reclaiming of trans representation in horror by @willowcatelyn.bsky.social. #Mubi #JaneSchoenbrun #FilmSky

youtu.be

Video Essay: "Loving the Monster" | CAMP MIASMA | MUBI

YouTube video by MUBI

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Very excited to see The Unknown later this year.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

If you liked this video essay then you'd probably also like my book CORPSES, FOOLS AND MONSTERS: THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF TRANSNESS IN CINEMA. There's a substantial portion dedicated to the movies covered in the opening section of this video essay. bookshop.org/p/books/corp...

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thank you so much Jessica! Very happy you liked it

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Jessica Kiang @jessicakiang.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Well, this is (of course) fantastic.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

mubi.com

Loving the Monster

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Liz @schlockvalue.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Working with Ken to get his work back out there and really seen for the first time has been one of the great honors of my career, excited for more people to finally see these incredible pioneering video works

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Muscle Distribution @muscledistribution.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Our new Blu-ray release of Ken Camp’s long-unseen queer narrative videos HIGHWAY HYPNOSIS and AS THE WORLD BURNS is now up for preorder! Includes brand new digital transfers, new restorations of two super 8 shorts, raw footage, commentaries, and more. vinegarsyndrome.com/products/hig...

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"I was an insect who dreamed he was a man, but the dream is over."

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

He wheezes when the grain intensifies, and the scene eventually climaxes with him screaming and literally vomiting tube tv static.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

You're right to point it out. I think it's definitely body horror. Consider the moment when Schoenbrun is shifting between the fuzzy analog TV aesthetic and the real world when Owen is watching the series of The Pink Opaque while those characters he fixates on are buried alive.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

To name on example. All of these movies are closer to something like BRAINDEAD and I like BRAINDEAD, but yeah. Different.

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