FLM 185 Horror Films

For information about a film director's artistic process or about his life, critical articles give much more than basic facts -- they give criticism and interpretation. Critical articles are generally more than 1000 words. Critical articles often appear in magazines or newspapers intended for the general public and much longer critical articles appear in scholarly journals. When a critical article is more than 3000 words long and appears in an academic journal, it is then usually considered to be both critical and scholarly.   

Below is an example of a critical article on a director. 

A reliable database for finding critical articles in WCC's library is Academic Onefile.   A link to Academic Onefile is at the bottom of this box.

How To Use Academic OneFile:

1. Click on Subject Guide Search.

2. Type in director's name (last name and then first name) and click the box in front of  full text. Then click the Search button or the Enter key.

3. On the next screen the director's name will reappear along with the number of results (the number of articles found.) Underneath the director's name may be the word Subdivisions.  Click either on the director's name to get all the articles or click on Subdivisions and then choose Criticism and Interpretation, for example.

A critical article about film can be about a particular film and its aspects (e.g. its mood, its effect on viewers, its themes) or about films in general (e.g. their history, their impact on popular culture.)  (1)Critical articles about film are those that speak to the informed film-goer who wants more than a description of plot. (2)Critical articles give criticism and interpretation. (3)Critical articles are generally  1000 words or longer. (4) Critical articles often appear in magazines or newspapers intended for the general public although much longer critical articles appear in scholarly journals. When a critical article is 3000 or more words long and appears in an academic journal, it is then considered to be scholarly.  (See tab above for Finding Scholarly Articles.) 

Below is an example of a critical article (also called a critical review) written to give more insight to the reader. 

Also below is an example of a standard review which is not critical and is written primarily to help a reader decide which movie to see at the theater that night or to rent.

A reliable database for finding critical articles in WCC's library is Academic Onefile.   A link to Academic Onefile is at the bottom of this box.

How To Use Academic OneFile:

1. Click on Advanced Search.

2. Leave Keyword in the menu box.

3. In the white box next to Keyword, type in "horror movies" in quotation marks to get general articles.  OR, type in the name of a particular film like "night of the living dead" in quotation marks.  In either case, be sure to use QUOTATION MARKS.

4. Check the box for Full Text.

5. Then click on SEARCH.  When a list of articles comes up on the screen, click on one or more titles until you find the article you want to write about.

A scholarly article about film can be about a particular film (e.g.its mood, its effect on viewers, its themes) or about films in general (e.g.their history, their impact on popular culture.)  Scholarly articles are generally written by professors and other experts and are published in journals that those experts will read. Such articles are usually 1500 words or more. Click the link below to find a scholarly article about the 2009 film Zombieland. This article is 6571 words long and  is from a magazine called Journal of The Fantastic In The Arts that was indexed in the Academic Onefile database. 

A reliable database for finding scholarly articles in WCC's library is Academic OneFile.  A link to Academic OneFile is at the bottom of this box.

How To Use Academic OneFile:

1.  Click on Advanced Search.

2.  Leave Keyword in the menu box or try pulling down the menu and using Subject.

3.  In the white box next to Keyword, type in "horror movies" in quotation marks to get general articles.  OR, type in the name of a particular film like "night of the living dead" in quotation marks.  In both cases, be sure to use QUOTATION MARKS.

4. Check the boxes for Full Text and for Peer Reviewed Journals.

5.  Then click on SEARCH.