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Liam Hathaway

Media, De Montfort University

Thesis title:

Monsters by the Millions: An Eco-cultural History of the 'Killer Bug' Film

My thesis is an eco-cultural investigation into killer bug films and how they articulate humankind’s impact upon the natural world. Starting by re-evaluating the critical orthodoxy surrounding 1950s big bug films (Them! [1954], Taranatula! [1955], Attack of the Giant Leeches [1959] and so on) that links the solely with Cold War and nuclear anxieties, my work will continue to encompass killer bug films from later decades to determine the pertinent environmental issues.

Research Area

  • Media

Publications

  • A Teen-Rex Romance: Notes on Tammy and the T-Rex and its Director, Sewart Raffill (Blu-Ray booklet essay for 101 Films' release of Tammy and the T-Rex, 2021). Forthcoming Jan/Feb 2021.
  • In Space, No One Cares if You Scream (Blu-Ray bookley essay for 101 Films' release of Screamers, 2020).

  • Adapt or Die (Blu-Ray booklet essay for 101 Films' release of Phase IV, 2020).

  • Brother from Another Place (Brother John screening program essay for Science Fiction Theatre, 2019). 

  • Adapt or Die (Phase IV screening program essay for Science Fiction Theatre, 2019).

  • Men in BlackThe AbyssThe Thing. In: Levy, M., ed., Aliens in Popular Culture. Greenwood (2019).

  • Embracing Eternity (Slaughterhouse-Five screening program essay for Science Fiction Theatre). (2018).

  • Capricorn One; Colossus: The Forbin Project. In: Ainsley, G., ed., Science Fiction Theatre Compendium (2018).

  • Dreams Require Sacrifice: Fame, Fortune and Body-Horror in Starry Eyes (Co-authored with Craig Ian Mann). In: K. Nowak-McNeice and A. Zarzycka, eds., A Dark California: Essays on Dystopian Depictions in Popular Culture. North Carolina: McFarland, 2018, pp. 101-115.

  • Pushing the Envelope: ‘The Rise of the ‘Dark Thriller’. The Void (2), 2017.

  • ‘Long Live the New Flesh: Body-Horror in the 21st Century’. The Void 1 (1), 2015.


Conferences

  • Monsters by the Millions (redux). Screen Cultures Cluster Meeting at Birmingham City University, 24 April, 2019
  • “We Make Our Own Luck”: Killer Bugs and the Immigrant Experience in Most Beautiful Island. “It Is True, We Shall Be Monsters”: New Perspectives on Horror, Science Fiction and the Monstrous Onscreen. De Montfort University, 13 June 2018.
  • Monsters by the Millions: An Eco-cultural Investigation of the ‘Killer Bug’ Film. Horror, Cult and Exploitation Media II. Northumbria University, 4 May 2018.

  • The Post-post Apocalypse: The ‘Quiet Apocalypse’ in Twenty-first Century Horror Cinema. Fear 2000: 21st Century Horror Conference. Sheffield Hallam University, 6-7 April 2018.

  • A Web of Lies: The ‘Killer Spider’ Film in the Twenty-first Century. Fear 2000: 21st Century Horror Conference. Sheffield Hallam University, 21-22 April 2017.