House of Psychotic Women (Paperback): An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films

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Along with the release of the book, Severin Films has created a dope box set, "House of Psychotic Women Rarities Collection," that contains four films selected by Janisse and lovingly restored from the vault: The book was first released with endorsements from Fritz the Cat director Ralph Bakshi (“ God, this woman can write, with a voice and intellect that’s so new.”) and The Wasp Factory author Iain Banks (“ Fascinating, engaging and lucidly written: an extraordinary blend of deeply researched academic analysis and revealing memoir.”) The whole thing has a very free-flow vibe to it, not always concerned with narrative sense or logic but more interested in displaying controversial and taboo busting imagery and strange, surreal tableaus. The performances are, quite understandably given the state these women were in, hardly conventional and often times hysterical, and you’ll have no trouble believing that the players cast as the inmates are indeed quite insane. Arden, who wrestled with mental illness and committed suicide in 1982, clearly invested a lot of herself in the movie, and while it can be a challenging film to enjoy, it’s absolutely one worth seeing for its unrepentantly confrontational and challenging nature. Janisse is the author of A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (FAB Press, 2007 ) and House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (FAB Press, 2012). The Piano Teacher (says Kier-La: “I have so much love for (Isabelle Huppert’s character) that it’s hard to even describe”; says me: brrr….)

House of Psychotic Women (Hardback) Kier-La Janisse (Author) House of Psychotic Women (Hardback) Kier-La Janisse (Author)

Introduction To THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNDERNEATH By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic WomenIn 2012 Kier-La Janisse published House of Psychotic Women, billed as "an autobiographical topography of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films." It soon became one of the most "vital" (Tim Lucas, Video Watchdog) and "astonishing" (Daily Grindhouse) genre tomes of all time. To mark the book's 10th anniversary, award-winning writer/programmer/filmmaker Janisse now presents four of the strongest and strangest explorations of onscreen delirium and hysteria, all on U.S. Blu-ray for the first time: Elizabeth Taylor stars in 1974's IDENTIKIT as a woman who travels to Rome to find the most dangerous liaison. In the surreal 1986 Polish horror-comedy I LIKE BATS, a vampire discovers that love may be the cruelest curse of all. Florinda Bolkan stars in the startling 1975 amnesiac giallo FOOTPRINTS from the director of THE FIFTH CORD. And British screenwriter and radical theatre icon Jane Arden directs 1972's harrowing THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNDERNEATH. In a very unsurprising move, Severin Films and Kier-La Janisse have bestowed this release with a long list of newly produced and archival features to not only add context to the films being presented but further the conversation about these rarities to keep them alive. Of the many interviews, commentaries and other supplements included, I do want to call out a newly produced 68-minute interview with Vittorio Storaro that’s included with the Italian Cut of Footprints. This interview is truly exhaustive, showcasing just how much of a talented workman Storaro started his career as and just continued to grow from there. His agility in the Italian film industry made him a huge asset to many American filmmakers, yet the man knows how to tell a good story with the best of them. Kier-La Janisse (born October 3, 1972) is a Canadian film writer, programmer, producer, and founder of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. Her best-known work as a writer is House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (FAB Press, 2012) which many critics consider an important milestone in both confessional film writing and the study of female madness onscreen. Video Watchdog’s Tim Lucas referred to it as one of the 10 “most vital” horror film books of all time, [1] and Ian MacAllister-McDonald of the LA Review of Books called it “the next step in genre theory, as well as the most frightening and heart-rending memoir I’ve read in years.” [2] Her debut feature as a filmmaker, the three-hour documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, premiered at SXSW 2021 where it won the Midnighters Audience Award. [3] Film and event programming [ edit ] The other feature I want to call direct attention to is the 135-minute interview with artist/actress Penny Slinger at the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. It’s similarly exhaustive and involves a conversation with Slinger, charting her work with Jane Arden and her own interests in sexual surrealism. This feature makes the set valuable alone.

House of Psychotic Women (1974) - ALL HORROR House of Psychotic Women (1974) - ALL HORROR

If you've been reading this blog for a while or have listened to my podcast, you've probably heard me mention "House of Psychotic Women" many times over the years. Like Janisse, I have always used movies (and books) to help me understand myself; unlike Janisse, I don't have the guts to put my inner demons out there for other people to consume and dissect. For those who have missed my previous spiels about this fantastic book, here's a brief rundown.Light on narrative but rife with unsettling depictions of insanity, the movie introduces us to a woman referred to as Meg The Peg (Sheila Allen, who will be recognizable to some as Number Fourteen on The Prisoner!) who suffers from schizophrenia. After a breakdown and a suicide attempt, she's put in an asylum located near a remote, rural village for psychiatric treatment and therapy. From here, we witness Meg's interactions with other inmates and witness various incidents and episodes all relating to madness and the exploitation of women. Directed by Grzegorz Warchol from a screenplay he co-wrote with Krystyna Kofta and released in 1986, I Like Bats (Lubie nietoperze in its native Poland) tells the rather odd story of a beautiful young woman named Izabela (Katarzyna Walter who, oddly enough, showed up briefly in the 2004 Steven Seagal movie Out Of Reach) who works in an antique shop run by her aunt. Before I get into the respective presentations, it’s worth noting here that the mention of “Rarities” in this release’s title should not go unheard. Some of these films are somehow not completely lost to obscurity, and of course the remaining film elements are in tough shape because of various reasons. That being said, I was very pleased overall to see sturdy encodes and accurate, filmic representations of the films throughout. Even where damage crept its way in, it’s clear that it was inherent to the source materials and would probably look worse cleaned up with some restoration tools. Imagine my surprise and delight when I first encountered Kier-La Janisse's "House of Psychotic Women," a book that seamlessly blends film analysis with memoir. By using movies to help her understand her own life, Janisse leads both herself and the reader to more meaningful conclusions than any piece of detached academic writing ever could. Early on, she writes, "We have more patience, or perhaps even empathy, for fictional characters than we do their real-life counterparts. Faced with neurosis in film or literature, we want to investigate rather than avoid." By combining the two genres, Janisse breathes life into the "psychotic women" we see on screen by explaining how they fit into her own narrative. It's a book that still feels radical in its methodology and vulnerability, even ten years after its first release. The book is worth reading for its discussion of "Possession" (1981) alone. Audio Commentary For I LIKE BATS By Kamila Wielebska, Actor And Co-Editor Of A Story Of Sin: Surrealism In Polish Cinema

HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN SEVERIN ANNOUNCES NEW BOX SET ‘HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN

She edited the book Warped & Faded: Weird Wednesday and the Birth of the American Genre Film Archive (Mondo, 2021). [18] women, alucarda, diabel, carrie, la novia ensangrentada, femina ridens, let’s scare jessica to death. all these films bring me a deep sense of belonging, my own scarred psyche share something with these women - paranoia, desperate anxiety, apocalyptic hysteria; films that focus on the experience of being a woman and not being shamed for having such destructive emotions. i remember reading a blog post called “horror movies are one of the few places women are told their fears are real”, which it resonates deeply with me and the internalization of anxiety and guilt i sometimes feel for being a “crazy bitch.” and that’s where my personal appeal for extreme cinema comes from. Book Genre: Art, Autobiography, Biography, Culture, ers, Feminism, Film, Horror, Media Tie In, Memoir, Nonfiction, Psychology, rs, Womensthis is the first paragraph of kier la-janisse’s house of psychotic women, an autobiographical topography of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films. i’ve been meaning to write a review on this book for so long (i’ve started it, several times) but how do you explain to yourself that the representation of the damaged you see onscreen, mostly inside of horror narratives, is the one you relate the most? Next up is 1985 vampire horror comedy I Like Bats, directed and co-written by Grzegorz Warchol. The film presents itself a gothic horror film with the free visual style popularized during the Polish New Wave. Or rather, it’s presented in a style that apes the conventional trappings of American horror and comedy productions, but done with such aesthetic transgression towards those productions that it becomes its own thing. Simply, just see it. It follows the life of a single young female vampire Izabela (Katarzyna Walter), who loves to feed on the various suitors and sleazebags that enter her orbit. But soon she meets the man that has her feeling a different thirst, a romantic one! This is perhaps the best discovery in this set and is indicative of the kind of essential curation that is offered throughout the set. I truly cannot recommend watching it enough. Cinema is full of neurotic personalities, but few things are more transfixing than a woman losing her mind onscreen. Unlike her male counterpart, the female neurotic lives a shamed existence, making these films rare places where her destructive emotions get to play. House of Psychotic Women is an examination of these characters through a daringly autobiographical lens. Anecdotes and memories interweave with film history, criticism, trivia and confrontational imagery to create a personal history and a celebration of female madness, onscreen and off. House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films by Kier-la Janisse – eBook Details If you don’t have her book HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN you are missing something. A melange of misfit movies and very personal agony, there is just nothing like it in the universe. Others may attempt a similar approach, but Kier-La did it first and did it best. This is a book that will never be topped.”– Jimmy McDonough, author, Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography and The Ghastly One: The 42nd Street Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan