Bowdoin College students have numerous reasons to be proud of their school. It has the best food in the country, a high level of academic discourse, and excellent professors who are renowed in their fields.
Beginning October 27, Associate Professor of English Aviva Briefel will be recognized for her expertise in the area of horror films. She will appear on Bravo in the miniseries "Even Scarier Movie Moments," where she will offer her insight on various horrifying moments in the genre.
Briefel's experience with horror films began with an interest in fear. As a child, she says that she was scared of "everything." The horror film became a test of her will. She remembers seeing "The Omen" and not being able to sleep at night afterward.
Not allowing horror films to have such control over her, she turned the watching of films into tests?how much could she handle?
Apparently, she found that she could handle as much as horror could dish out. She began to read criticisms of the horror genre, which further piqued her interest. In graduate school at Harvard University, she wrote a paper on the film "Candyman" that was later published.
Briefel has some difficulty in choosing a favorite horror film. She is partial to George A. Romero's work and the film "Carrie," while she said that the scariest film is the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
She likened the style of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to "Night of the Living Dead," in that there is no safe studio space, with the low budget contributing to the feeling of unstructured madness. Despite numerous re-viewings of the film (recently just watched in her Horror Film in Context course), she says it is still unpredictable, repulsive, and representative of what a horror film should be?uncontrolled.
The show, set to appear on Bravo, is a continuation of a miniseries that appeared in 2004, which counted down the scariest horror film moments. Briefel also had a hand in the making of the original miniseries. The director of the series contacted her precisely because of her knowledge in the field of horror.
She spoke for four hours on the subject, drawing freely from whichever films she felt contributed the starkest scary scenes. Her influence in the creation of the first series has led to her inclusion on this second round of discussion of frightful scenes.
There is some criticism about the series; specifically, that it spoils what are deemed to be the films' shining moments. However, the first series was immensely popular and earned numerous re-airings, which speaks to the desire of viewers to engage in public discussion in a way that creates some distance from the horror.
The "Scary Movie Moments" miniseries provides that separation, while also providing intelligent discussion with some of the prominent members of the horror community, such as Wes Craven, Clive Barker, and, yes, Aviva Briefel.
"Even Scarier Movie Moments" will appear on Bravo?channel 48 for Bowdoin students?beginning October 27 at 7 p.m. The show is set to re-air numerous times and new episodes run until November 1.