Communicating Fears in Film: Eastern Othering, Part 2 - Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Continuing the Eastern Othering unit for this Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics in Media (5:18), cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine a second consecutive cult film from the 1980s, John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China. While Carpenter's feature was distributed by 20th Century Fox in 1986, the project lingered in development for years. These tales of storytelling influence provide a rich preproduction backstory (11:16), while also setting up a second conversation this season concerning Carpenter's horror oeuvre (see S7, E10 focus on astrophobia and adaptation in The Thing). The dialogic duo express favor for Big Trouble while also recognizing its conventional admixture of pre-existing low-budget film sub-genres like the Kung Fu action movie, the antihero Spaghetti Western, and the motif of San Francisco as a "movie city" often depicted as mysterious (31:20). To wrap up their close reading, Garret prompts Scott to consider the ways in which this movie does (or does not) communicate fear through the powerful medium of film (1:06:35).

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film":
Kendal Phillips. Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film. Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. 

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.

John Carpenter (Director). Big Trouble in Little China. San Francisco, California, USA: Twentieth Century Fox/TAFT Entertainment Pictures/SLM Production Group, 1986.

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/.