Case's new film professor doesn't shy from horror films

For immediate release: November 19, 2003
For more information, contact Susan Griffith at 216-368-1004 or susan.griffith@case.edu

CLEVELAND—Fall and Halloween spark Hollywood's blitz of horror films. This year is no different with releases like the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Scary Movie 3." But 70 years ago, filmmakers didn't even have a name for this film genre, according to Robert Spadoni, Case Western Reserve University's new assistant professor of film in the department of English.

Robert Spadoni

Spadoni—who joined the faculty this summer following his graduation from the University of Chicago—is Case's new expert on these thrillers. He teaches the popular introduction to film course and plans to enlighten students spring semester with a survey course that investigates the horrific in cinema from its beginning in 1895 through current times.

Film as an interdisciplinary study in the humanities is also one he envisions developing with collaborations among a burgeoning number of faculty members with film expertise.

Moviegoers had their introduction to the horror sound film with the sanctioned adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1931. The 1919 German silent film, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," was among a number of forerunners to the sound horror film that primed audiences for the rise of this new type of movie.

But Hollywood didn't know what to call "Dracula" when it arrived at movie theaters across the country and billed it as a romance," said Spadoni.
Reviewer was perplexed by "Dracula", noted Spadoni, as very little romance came across the screen and many wrote instead about the ghostly-sounding dialogue and haunting silences that sent shivers through the audience.

"The filmmakers picked up on the audience's perceptions and reinforced them in subsequent horror films," he added.

Though initially well-respected, the horror film quickly found a niche as a low-budget genre aimed primarily at the juvenile market, stated Spadoni.

The audience's reception of a film and how it influences production is a new direction for film scholars, and Spadoni is on the cutting edge with his exploration of the horror movie.

"While films and reams of production records exist to tell us about how a movie was made, understanding what the audience did with the films takes sifting through reviews and other sorts of writing in newspapers and magazines," stated Spadoni.

"One needs to be creative in thinking about film reception," he explained. In addition to reviews and ticket-office data, he finds information in film exhibitors' weekly newspapers, which offer such promotional efforts as staging contests in conjunction with local newspapers, having people dress up like zombies and hand out leaflets in town squares to decorating theater lobbies to look like crypts.

"We also have press booklets that went out to exhibitors," said Spadoni that described more exhibition stunts and included ready-made reviews for local newspapers to run.

"Such fictitious reviews tell us how the studios wanted their horror films to be received," said Spadoni, "and that can help us better understand how the films were actually received."

He took an in-depth look at this subject in his doctoral dissertation, "The Uncanny of Early Sound Film: Classic Horror Cinema and the Return of Medium-Sensitive Viewer." His dissertation examined general audience responses to the first sound films and related those to the emerging horror film genre.

In addition to earning his doctorate at the University of Chicago, he received his master's degree in cinema studies from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and his bachelor's of art degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He also did graduate course work in film at Northwestern University's department of radio/television/film.

About Case Western Reserve University

Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826 and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research, and service. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dentistry, Engineering, Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Sciences. http://www.case.edu.

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