Raising Hell: Demons, Darkness and the Abject
18th – 27th October 2023
Birmingham, UK/Online
An international conference (with options for online and in person attendance) - 18th-20th October 2023
Accompanying guest filmmakers, UK theatrical premieres and exclusive screenings - 18th-27th October 2023
Birmingham, UK/Online
An international conference (with options for online and in person attendance) - 18th-20th October 2023
Accompanying guest filmmakers, UK theatrical premieres and exclusive screenings - 18th-27th October 2023
Featured Events include: Hellraiser -- An Unholy Reunion of Cenobites
Confirmed Guests Include:
Doug Bradley (Pinhead Hellraiser, Hellbound: Hellraiser II) – Exclusive Cine-Excess Delegate Q&A/Recorded Address
Confirmed Guests Include:
Doug Bradley (Pinhead Hellraiser, Hellbound: Hellraiser II) – Exclusive Cine-Excess Delegate Q&A/Recorded Address
Nicholas Vince (The Chatterer, Hellraiser, Hellbound: Hellraiser II) - Live on stage at the Birmingham Electric Cinema Thursday 19th October from 7.30pm
Barbie Wilde (Female Cenobite, Hellbound: Hellraiser II) - Live on stage at the Birmingham Electric Cinema Thursday 19th October from 7.30pm
Simon Bamford (Butterball, Hellraiser, Hellbound: Hellraiser II) - Live on stage at the Birmingham Electric Cinema Thursday 19th October from 7.30pm
Live online Keynote Speaker: Professor Barbara Creed (University of Melbourne), marking the 30th anniversary republication of The Monstrous–Feminine.
For its 2023 edition, Cine-Excess considers the cinematic, social and cultural significance of the possessed, supernatural and unclean body onscreen. In-keeping with the festival’s established mission to integrate academic and industrial film perspectives, this year’s theme of 'Raising Hell: Demons, Darkness and the Abject' focuses on landmark scholarly texts as well as anniversaries and restorations of cult cinema classics that deal with this subject.
Barbara Creed’s The Monstrous–Feminine, first published in 1993, swiftly became acknowledged as a ground-breaking text in the study of horror for its application of feminist and psychoanalytic theory and its foregrounding of Julia Kristeva’s concept of ‘abjection’. Thirty years on, Professor Creed is publishing a second edition of the book, with a new section entitled: ‘Revolt of the Monstrous-feminine embracing the Nonhuman’. This new face of the monstrous-feminine is the topic of a live streamed Cine-Excess 2023 keynote lecture. 2023 also marks the 50th anniversary of the mother of all devil child films, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. An enormous box office success and cultural phenomenon, the film spawned an international wave of ‘devil child’ imitations with their own social, cultural and gender-based sensibilities, whilst Friedkin and Warner Bros. have themselves continued to revisit and reissue the film in the intervening years. Autumn 2023 sees a 4K restoration return to theatres, and with the recent passing of its legendary director William Friedkin, The Exorcist rightfully features in the Cine-Excess 2023 call for papers.
Also returning in a 4K restoration this autumn is Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (1987) and its sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser II (Tony Randel, 1988). Hellraiser represents one of the most distinctive and influential of all British cult horrors, with its seductive combination of intellectual provocation, shocking visuals and thematic abjection, the Hellraiser universe continues to inspire fascination and adoration, most recently through a 2022 loose reboot of the first film. To celebrate the restoration of the cult classic, we are delighted to be bestowing Cine-Excess Innovator of Horror Awards to its iconic cenobite stars Doug Bradley, Nicholas Vince, Barbie Wilde and Simon Bamford, with the latter three appearing at Cine-Excess on Thursday 19th October 2023.
Beyond the example of Hellraiser, ‘Raising Hell: Demons, Darkness and the Abject’ also draws in other nationally specific examples of the supernatural and subcultural from The Wicker Man (which also celebrates its 50th anniversary) to more contemporary international examples of the folk horror phenomenon. Additionally, this year’s conference theme also provides the platform to discuss classic and contemporary visions of the supernatural from the Global South, which themselves display important social, cultural, gender and regional concerns.
Accordingly, this year’s theme 'Raising Hell: Demons, Darkness and the Abject' invites participants to consider both classic and contemporaneous texts and consider their ongoing influence for both film audiences and cinema scholars. Cine-Excess 2023 invites delegates to present either in person or online, and participants should indicate their preference when submitting their conference proposal. Proposals are therefore invited for individual papers or pre-constituted panels that consider case-studies within a range of differing contexts that relate to this year’s theme. We would particularly welcome contributions that focus on the following areas:
Over the past 17 years Cine-Excess has developed a reputation as an inclusive and safe space in which to present new work around global cult film cultures. We welcome submissions from emerging and established scholars, activists, film makers and community groups.
Please send a 300-word abstract and a short (one page) C.V. by Friday 25th August 2023 to:
John Atkinson
Editorial Lead of Cine-Excess
john.atkinson@cine-excess.co.uk
Professor Xavier Mendik
Director of Cine-Excess
xavier.mendik@cine-excess.co.uk
A final listing of accepted presentations will be released on Thursday 31st August 2023.
We will subsequently invite a limited number of participants to rework their papers for inclusion in the sixth edition of the Cine-Excess journal, for publication in spring 2024.
The conference component of Cine-Excess 2023 takes place between 18th-20th October 2023. Delegates are invited to present either in person or online for this year’s conference, and delegates should indicate their preference when submitting their conference proposal. We have adopted this hybrid structure to ensure that the event remains accessible and inclusive to international and low-waged scholars.
Delegate fees for in person attendance at the conference and related in-person/streamed screenings and filmmaker talks are £150/£75 (concessions). Delegate fees for virtual attendance at the conference and related streamed screenings and filmmaker talks are £100/£50 (concessions).
Supported by Birmingham City University, Arrow Video and The Electric Cinema.
Barbara Creed’s The Monstrous–Feminine, first published in 1993, swiftly became acknowledged as a ground-breaking text in the study of horror for its application of feminist and psychoanalytic theory and its foregrounding of Julia Kristeva’s concept of ‘abjection’. Thirty years on, Professor Creed is publishing a second edition of the book, with a new section entitled: ‘Revolt of the Monstrous-feminine embracing the Nonhuman’. This new face of the monstrous-feminine is the topic of a live streamed Cine-Excess 2023 keynote lecture. 2023 also marks the 50th anniversary of the mother of all devil child films, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. An enormous box office success and cultural phenomenon, the film spawned an international wave of ‘devil child’ imitations with their own social, cultural and gender-based sensibilities, whilst Friedkin and Warner Bros. have themselves continued to revisit and reissue the film in the intervening years. Autumn 2023 sees a 4K restoration return to theatres, and with the recent passing of its legendary director William Friedkin, The Exorcist rightfully features in the Cine-Excess 2023 call for papers.
Also returning in a 4K restoration this autumn is Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (1987) and its sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser II (Tony Randel, 1988). Hellraiser represents one of the most distinctive and influential of all British cult horrors, with its seductive combination of intellectual provocation, shocking visuals and thematic abjection, the Hellraiser universe continues to inspire fascination and adoration, most recently through a 2022 loose reboot of the first film. To celebrate the restoration of the cult classic, we are delighted to be bestowing Cine-Excess Innovator of Horror Awards to its iconic cenobite stars Doug Bradley, Nicholas Vince, Barbie Wilde and Simon Bamford, with the latter three appearing at Cine-Excess on Thursday 19th October 2023.
Beyond the example of Hellraiser, ‘Raising Hell: Demons, Darkness and the Abject’ also draws in other nationally specific examples of the supernatural and subcultural from The Wicker Man (which also celebrates its 50th anniversary) to more contemporary international examples of the folk horror phenomenon. Additionally, this year’s conference theme also provides the platform to discuss classic and contemporary visions of the supernatural from the Global South, which themselves display important social, cultural, gender and regional concerns.
Accordingly, this year’s theme 'Raising Hell: Demons, Darkness and the Abject' invites participants to consider both classic and contemporaneous texts and consider their ongoing influence for both film audiences and cinema scholars. Cine-Excess 2023 invites delegates to present either in person or online, and participants should indicate their preference when submitting their conference proposal. Proposals are therefore invited for individual papers or pre-constituted panels that consider case-studies within a range of differing contexts that relate to this year’s theme. We would particularly welcome contributions that focus on the following areas:
- 50 Years of Fear: William Friedkin and the Legacy of The Exorcist
- ‘Taste our pleasures!’: The Legacy and Influence of Hellraiser
- The Devil Inside Her: Witches and Wayward Women on Screen
- Supernatural Visions of the Global South
- National Traditions of the Abject Body on Screen
- Little Devils: Demonic Children on Screen
- New Visions of the Monstrous Feminine
- ‘He has his father’s eyes’: Parenthood and Demonic Children
- Raising Hell: Unruly Cult Auteurs as Unholy Creatives
- ‘He chose you, honey! From all the women in the world to be the mother of his only living son!’: The Female as the Mid-Wife to the Devil
- Demonic Divas: Star Study Perspectives of Possession Performers
- ‘If I die I’m going to haunt you myself’: Demonic Possession in an Online World
- The Power of the Box Office Compels You: Exorcist Clones in Context
- Folklore Cinema and the Witch as Monstrous Feminine
- ‘Have these children never heard of Jesus?’: The Wicker Man at 50
- ‘The box. You opened it. We came’: The Exorcist and Hellraiser reborn in the multi-platform age
- Making Work for Idle Hands: The Devil in the Workplace
- Supernatural Small Towns of the Streamers: Stranger Things, Fear Street, Sabrina
- From Fantasia to Goosebumps: The Demonic in Children’s Media
- Are You Making it Move?: Rituals and Performance in Demonic Cinema
Over the past 17 years Cine-Excess has developed a reputation as an inclusive and safe space in which to present new work around global cult film cultures. We welcome submissions from emerging and established scholars, activists, film makers and community groups.
Please send a 300-word abstract and a short (one page) C.V. by Friday 25th August 2023 to:
John Atkinson
Editorial Lead of Cine-Excess
john.atkinson@cine-excess.co.uk
Professor Xavier Mendik
Director of Cine-Excess
xavier.mendik@cine-excess.co.uk
A final listing of accepted presentations will be released on Thursday 31st August 2023.
We will subsequently invite a limited number of participants to rework their papers for inclusion in the sixth edition of the Cine-Excess journal, for publication in spring 2024.
The conference component of Cine-Excess 2023 takes place between 18th-20th October 2023. Delegates are invited to present either in person or online for this year’s conference, and delegates should indicate their preference when submitting their conference proposal. We have adopted this hybrid structure to ensure that the event remains accessible and inclusive to international and low-waged scholars.
Delegate fees for in person attendance at the conference and related in-person/streamed screenings and filmmaker talks are £150/£75 (concessions). Delegate fees for virtual attendance at the conference and related streamed screenings and filmmaker talks are £100/£50 (concessions).
Supported by Birmingham City University, Arrow Video and The Electric Cinema.