Interview with Dr Stella Gaynor

Stella is a good friend and fantastic academic, I am thrilled to have her feature on this newsletter! Thank you so much! Dr Stella Gaynor is an Associate Lecturer at The University of Salford, in the Broadcast Media department in the School of Arts and Media, and a Visiting Lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University in the Screen School. She has recently completed her PhD thesis titled Made for TV Monsters, an examination of horror on US television from an industrial perspective. She has written a chapter for the forthcoming book Global TV Horror, edited by Lorna Jowett & Stacey Abbott, on the global distribution of The Walking Dead and the strategy of Fox International Channels. She has an article 'Family separations, false refuge and an economy of violence: America's moral sickness in Black Summer', in a forthcoming issue of Revenant: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural. She is a regular blogger for Critical Studies in Television Online, and is also a professional makeup artist, specializing in casualty and horror effects.

So, what started your interest in horror?

When I was a kid I was always into the darker side of things. I loved The Worst Witch books, by Jill Murphy, Are You Afraid of the Dark? Knightmare, things like that. I remember watching the 1976 Carrie when I was around 9 or 10, and a friends birthday party where we watched IT and Childs play. I remember these films really scaring me and interfering with my sleep for a while afterwards, but I kept coming back for more! In my teens, me and my friends would have regular horror nights and watch as many horror movies on VHS as we could in one night.

But the moment that really set me on my horror path was seeing Craven's Scream in the cinema. It was the day I left school and I was OBSESSED with that movie! From there – and because of the self referential nature of Scream, I got into all the older slasher movies and the 'rules.' Then I started buying Fangoria magazine, and from there started my interest in the makeup effects.

What has maintained your interest in horror?

As a genre horror develops quickly, and trends or cycles rise and fall as quick as they appear. Horror seems to always be at the forefront of new ideas and techniques. Using paratexts for marketing, or showcasing special effects on television, pushing boundaries and experimenting. I think it is this constantly shifting landscape of horror, that keeps me interested.

Because the genre has so many nuances and sub genres, it always feels fresh – even when watching a tried and tested formula like a slasher. Of course the growth in horror TV is great; the experimentation with long term serialization of what were once closed narratives is fascinating to me. And the effect on the monsters that television has.

Who/ what has been your biggest influence in your work today and why?

One of my undergraduate lecturers at Manchester Metropolitan University set me on the path to academia with a horror focus; Dr Emily Brick. I had done some film analysis way back when on my A Levels, but her passion for horror and analysis and understanding, really sparked with me. She was the lecturer and researcher who I looked at and thought “ I want to do this too.”

As my career has gone on, there have been a whole host of academics who have influenced me; Stacey Abbott, Lorna Jowett, Laura Mee, Lindsey Hallam, Helen Wheatley …. and many more. So that's who, as for what has been my biggest influence, I would say The Walking Dead on AMC. The trajectory of the show, its transmedia presence, the achievements and the discourse it creates – it marries together two of my research passions, both television studies and horror. And it was The Walking Dead of course, that was the initial catalyst for my PhD project.

How would you describe the differences of experiencing horror on the big and small screen?

On the big screen I definitely 'feel' the horror more – I will jump and yelp when I am at the cinema! I love a horror film screening where the other people in the theatre are as energetic about horror as I am: when people laugh, or scream, or jump, I love that. I love that group and shared experience of horror.

On the small screen – partly because I usually watch horror alone as my husband does not like it – I watch it in a quieter, more reserved way. While television can offer the same spectacle as horror cinema – via expensive special effects or big fancy HD TV screens, I think the cinema horror experience is much more involved in both a physical and a social way. That's not to say I don't love watching horror on the small screen as much, because I really do. But I know that my physical reaction to it is different. I think the only TV horror that has bothered me in my dreams has been the Haunting of Hill House – that Bent Neck Lady.... aaargh!

Where do you think your ideas - both in terms of academia and make up - come from?

In academia my ideas always start with wanting to write and research around texts that I love. I'll watch something and I am thinking “I'd love to write about this.” I think like lots of my fellow horror academics, I always watch horror with my work brain switched on too. So in the first instance, my ideas come from simply wanted to know more and immerse myself more in the horror that I love.

In the second instance, my ideas stem from noticing usually something small – a press critic comment on a piece of horror for example – makes me wonder why they said that. Or a decision or announcement from TV executives regarding horror. I want to know the why and the how, so that sends me off down a rabbit hole of research until I find out exactly what is going on.

For make up, I don't think there is anything more complex that just the joy I find in it! It makes me happy! Sometimes I like to recreate existing things, or test techniques, or I just like throwing fake blood about the place. Needless to say, I love Halloween!

You’ve just finished your PhD, and because of my love of notebooks and Filofaxes, I’m always going to ask....how do you store all your notes for different projects etc?

I'm a sucker for a lovely notepad! During my PhD I just went through one A4 notepad at a time, because it was all dedicated to the same thing – my thesis research. Every time I wrote in them I would date the top of the page like we did in school! So I could see when in the 3 years I was writing those notes.

Now that I have several projects on the go at once, including teaching, each gets its own special notebook. And then I have a diary. And a weekly work planner. And a sheet of paper stuck to the wall opposite my dining table / home office with a To Do list on it!

Lastly, the same horrible question I ask everyone...(I’m sorry in advance ?); what are your top 3 horror films, TV and books...?

Films:

Scream

28 Days Later

Zombieland.

TV:

The Walking Dead

American Horror Story

The Returned (the French one)

Books

World War Z

The Girl With All The Gifts

Plague of the Dead (Morningstar Strain)

Thank you so much!