As we head into the second (and hopefully last) pandemic summer, The Miskatonic Institute will be releasing some of the most popular online classes on our Vimeo channel. For those who might have missed a class, or are just learning about our organization, this is chance to spend some quality time with horror.

Available from July 1st – August 31st, you can watch this sampling from each branch, which includes the lecture and the q&a session. From the London Branch, you can learn about acclaimed author Shirley Jackson and her current renaissance, in The World is Full of Terrible People: Shirley Jackson and Female Violence, with Bernice M. Murphy; you can then learn from Kieran Foster about that renowned British studio in Hammer Goes to Hell: The House of Horror’s Unmade Films. The New York Branch will re-present (a little late for Pride but Pride is always) Monster, Vampire, Cannibal: Queer Horror and the Gothic, with Laura Westengard, and horror on the small screen in Horror Comes Home: Women and the Made-for-Television Movie, with instructor Amanda Reyes. The Los Angeles Branch gets musical with a replay of Symphony Macabre: Bernard Herrmann and the Scoring of Horror, with Steven C. Smith, and we take a deep dive into horror effects with the legendary Rick Baker: An Intimate Self-Portrait.

All the classes are captioned, and viewing cost is US$9. 

And continuing with amazing news, we are thrilled to announce the newest member of the Miskatonic Institute team, Cristina Cacioppo, as Co-Director of the New York Branch. Cristina Cacioppo has been a film programmer for two decades, heading up the 92nd Street Y’s Tribeca cinema and more recently the Alamo Drafthouse’s Brooklyn location, where she programmed the weekly Terror Tuesday series along with invited guest hosts, plus an annual Halloween movie marathon. She has a weekly column, “The Outskirts”, for Screen Slate, and also writes on occasion for Mubi. 

“When the opportunity to work with Miskatonic came up, my jubilance could not be tempered,” says Cacioppo. “This is such a singular community, showcasing incredible speakers with an inimitable depth of knowledge. Igniting my imagination with possibilities, there are so many people I’m thrilled to bring into the fold of lecturers, and to see what conversations unfold.”

We’ll announce our fall semester in August. Thank you for your continued support!