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100 Years of Monsters and Horror in Film Ongoing

Monsters and Horror from the silent era of film to the Monsters and Horror of the present. Every class is self-contained each week and can be taken in any order.
Mark Tyson B.A., M.A.
Average rating:
4.8
Number of reviews:
(460)
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Class

What's included

1 live meeting
1 in-class hours per week
Assessment
A letter grade and a percentage grade can be assessed from the essay writing. We will play a trivia game via the Gimkit educational platform every 5th class to test students knowledge of the subject matter. Please let me know if you require a final English grade for any portion or for every class of the course should your learner complete all 20 topics.
Grading
included

Class Experience

Note: This is an ongoing class. Currently there are 25 classes (one per week) before the class begins to repeat with the first topic again. Additional classes may be added in the future but for the moment there are 25 classes. After the 25th class, the class will circle back and begin again. 

Tuesday January 3rd: Vampires! We will discuss the origins of the vampire in literature and watch segments from the 1931, 1992 versions of Bram Stokers "Dracula" We will talk about Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, and others who have taken on the part. We will also discuss vampires of legend and folklore. I will explain why garlic and silver repels the retched beasts! 

Jan. 10th Science Gone Wrong! Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster! Beware the dangers of science! We will talk about where and why Mary Shelley wrote the story at age 17 and published it at age 19! We will discuss Boris Karloff and other great portrayals of the monster throughout the years. We will look at the inspirations for the novel, the real life Frankenstein-like insane scientists and alchemists. We will watch excerpts of at least three Frankenstein movies. 

Jan. 17th Phantoms and Ghosts! Opera anyone? Ghosts, ghouls, and phantoms of film and legend will be discussed. Lon Chaney Sr. will be discussed and the makeup of the horror industry will be discussed during this segment, for those of you who wish to terrorize your friends and family with movie makeup secrets! 

Jan. 24th More Vampires! One class is just not enough! Hundreds of Vampire films exist, over 200 feature the character of Dracula alone. In this class, we will revisit the vampire genre and look at some more of the infamous bloodsuckers from film history. 

Jan. 31st Golden Age Trivia Assessment Game, Game will be via Gimkit and is general knowledge. Participation does not require attendance in any of the previous or subsequent classes. 

Feb. 7th Werewolves! We will discuss the legend of the lycanthrope, why silver bullets will put them down, real life people who have claimed to be werewolves in the past. We will talk about Lon Chaney Jr. and the Wolfman film. We will also talk about the several werewolf movies throughout the decades. (Sorry, but no blood and gut changes or attacks will be shown. Doesn't mean it won't still be scary!)

Feb. 14th Witches! Witches! The Salem Witch Trials will be discussed along with black cats and familiars, flying broomsticks and bubbling cauldrons. From Shakespeare's "Macbeth" to Miller's "The Crucible", to Harry Potter: something wicked this way comes! 

Feb. 21st Creature Features! Not only creatures from the Black Lagoon, but also The Fly! Spider People! Mutants and Gremlins, we will look at horrible science gone wrong Mary Shelley style! Again with the dangers of science and messing with mother nature! Much of the horror of the 70s were creature features and disaster films so the 70s shine in this class. 

Feb.28th The 50s through the 70s! - Hammer films and related Ghouls: The 50s, 60s, and 70s all had great monsters, man eating fish, killer sharks, as well as vampires, ghouls, and yes.....Zombies! We will discuss "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston turning into the modern "I am Legend" with Will Smith where zombies were supposed to actually be vampires. Apes rule the world in 1968's "Planet of the Apes" and don't eat Soylent Green (Spoiler: it's people). We will look at the atomic monsters of the 50s, killer natural creatures like bees, oh and don't forget the Blob!

Mar. 7th Silver Age Trivia Assessment Game, Game will be via Gimkit and is general knowledge. Participation does not require attendance in any of the previous or subsequent classes. 

Mar. 14th Prequels, Sequels, and Hauntings! The Conjuring, The Nun, and other haunted films not shown in part one of this class will be visited during this week. We will also look at classic horror film sequels and prequels from the silver screen. The writing assignment will be due this week. 

Mar. 21st Horror Based on Urban Legends! We have all heard them, stories that go around masquerading as fact when they are more than likely fiction. The axman in the backseat of the car, the spider eggs in bubblegum etc. This class showcases movies born from urban legends. 

Mar. 28th Zombies! We will discuss the origins of the zombie in literature and watch segments from the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead as well as other zombie or zombie related films. We will also discuss zombies of legend and folklore.

Apr. 4th TV Horror! Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Stephen King made for TV movie monsters and other horror films brought to us not on the big screen, but on the television screen. NOTE: This is the week we will talk about the writing assignment and how to write an essay over literature or film. 

Apr. 11th Bronze Age Trivia Assessment Game, Game will be via Gimkit and is general knowledge. Participation does not require attendance in any of the previous or subsequent classes. 

Apr. 18th More Creature Features! Deadly Piranha, Giant Insects, Aliens, Predators, Spider People, Mutants and Gremlins. The creature feature is such a popular horror film it needs another class. This class will have more outlandish creatures such as aliens and mutants not seen in the first creature feature class. 

Apr. 25th 80s Horror! Films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Videodrome, and Dreamscape will be discussed. 

May 2nd Alfred Hitchcock and Thrillers! The films of the famous suspense and horror director are highlighted plus a few extra notable horror films to boot! 

May 9th Movies Inspired by the Original Twilight Zone! This class is all about movies inspired by the original Twilight Zone series of the late 50s early 60s. There are more than you might know! They are not all horror related either. 

May 16th Modern Age Trivia Assessment Game, Game will be via Gimkit and is general knowledge. Participation does not require attendance in any of the previous or subsequent classes. 

May 23rd More Hammer Films + MIsc! Opera anyone? Ghosts, ghouls, and phantoms of film and legend will be discussed. Hammer films of England brought back the Universal monsters in color. In part one of this class, we examined several of those Hammer films. In this section, we will look at films such as the Phantom of the Opera, and other Hammer versions of horror films. This class will explore the films not necessarily featuring the classic Universal style monsters. 

May 30th Atomic Creatures and Horror of the 50s! The atomic scare brought about many atomic creatures and horrors. Mutants, giant ants, and other such delightful, sometimes campy, tidbits of horror. We will look at feature films inspired by or related to atomic energy gone horribly wrong. 

June 6th Forgotten Gems! The Horror genre is vast and contains as many "B" movies as it does "A" movies. This class is all about films that rarely get mentioned or shown in horror film showcases. I have scoured the lists to find films even I have never heard of or have found to be obscure before I watched and researched them. 

June 13th More Science Gone Wrong! Why do scientists in these movies experiment on themselves? Don't they know it will end horribly, devilishly, bad for them? I guess not! This is the second class featuring scientists who have great hopes to invent contraptions and theme parks for the benefit of man only to discover they have created the opposite. Jurassic Park comes to mind!
Learning Goals
This is an Arts and English class. We are exploring the art of filmmaking as well as looking into the literature behind the film or in some cases the literature that has inspired the making of the film in question. The Horror genre crosses over with drama, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and other film types making it a very versatile subject in which to study many aspects of film making.
learning goal

Other Details

Parental Guidance
This is a Monsters and Horror in film glass. The subject material can be horrific. I take great pains to exclude all bad language and graphic depictions of anything questionable, but there will be nightmarish images occasionally (i.e. Monsters) . The more graphic or gory films, I stick to the "approved for all audiences" movie trailers, and do not show any additional clips from those films. We do use Gimkit and clips and movie trailers are shown via YouTube. I control all external resources so learners do not have to have any accounts or download any applications. YouTube is only used by me via the screen share feature of Zoom.
Supply List
No supplies are needed. I do require essays to be written on computer or the equivalent such as on a tablet or a smartphone.
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Joined August, 2017
4.8
460reviews
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Teacher expertise and credentials
Master's Degree in English from National University
Bachelor's Degree in English from New York Institute of Technology
I hold a Masters Degree in English and Literature with a specialty in Gothic Literature. I wrote my masters thesis over Edgar Allan Poe and his Feminine Ideal. I have experience teaching Gothic Literature in public school and online. I minored in Psychology and I have studied film history including Film Noir as well as Classic Horror in both my undergraduate and graduate school programs. 

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Live Group Class
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$15

weekly
1x per week
60 min

Completed by 1 learner
Live video meetings
Ages: 12-17
2-10 learners per class

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