Communicating Fears in Film: Nightmarish Nature, Part 3 - Contagion (2011)

Send us Fan MailRounding out our formal trilogy of "Nightmarish Nature" films in this Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics in Media, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry collaborate on on a unique outlier to the (mostly) horror focus with a biological thriller from director Steven Soderbergh in 2011, Contagion. Shot in Soderbergh's frequent handheld, close up-heavy fashion, Contagion anticipates with deadly realism the effects of a deadly global pandemic that functions as an eerily prescient harbinger to the real-world novel coronavirus that laid siege to much of the developed world in 2020. The dialogic duo initiate investigation recognizing alternative bio-terror films in movie history (3:25) before transitioning to an oral autopsy of Soderbergh's starkly straightforward drama. Scott examines the director's painstaking detail as an imitation of not simply genre form but medical form as well (19:20). Garret then shifts gears to lead a conversational court martial to ascertain the role that presence versus absence plays in director's film choices, including editing, film score, shot selection, and overall visual storytelling (29:50). The cohosts pay particular attention to Soderbergh's exquisite employment of montage (34:10) in addition to comparison and contrast of the cultural context that situates Contagion in 2011 versus the now-lived experiences relating to COVID-19 (57:17). Concluding their tout dialogical analysis, Garret prompts Scott to weigh gently the ways in which Soderbergh's Contagion communicates fear (1:49:16). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film":Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture. Praeger, 2006.Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema. Rutgers University Press, 2021.Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018.Steven Soderbergh (Director). Contagion. California, USA: Warner Bros./Participant/Imagination Abu Dhabi FZ/Double Feature Films, 2011.Ways to Connect with us online:Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics."Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/. Support the show