PLEASE NOTE that this class is a live, in-person only event at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. It will not be streamable. Tickets must be purchased through the festival, and this event is not covered by the Miskatonic season pass.
Historically, psychedelic horror cinema has centered men in crisis, from THE TRIP to BRAIN DAMAGE to MANDY. Such films may form a reactionary rejection of counterculturalism –– but there is more to this subgenre than meets the eye, according to Payton McCarty-Simas, author of That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film. This lecture offers a deep dive into the complex themes and surprising gender dynamics of these mind-expanding movies.
Extending from psychedelic cinema’s inception to modern entries like BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW and INFINITY POOL, McCarty-Simas grounds their dissection of acid-tinged horrors in a rich historical context. After analyzing masculinist movies like ALTERED STATES, they investigate counterexamples like Eiichi Yamamoto’s seminal feminist freakout, BELLADONNA OF SADNESS (screening at at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival this year). Ultimately, McCarty-Simas argues for the liberatory potential of the psychedelic horror film, in which women may “become horrifying women” –– a fate far better than life under heteropatriarchy.
Miskatonic is proud to partner with the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival to present this unique look at psychedelic horror history through a feminist lens. Don’t miss Payton McCarty-Simas’ exploration of one of horror’s most outrageous subgenres; it might just blow your mind.
Payton McCarty-Simas is an author, programmer, and film critic. Their academic and critical writing has been featured in Little White Lies, Film Daze, The Brooklyn Rail, and Horror Studies among others, as well as spotlighted in The New York Times, CNN, and RogerEbert.com. She is also the author of two books of nonfiction and film criticism, One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture (2024) and That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film (2025). Payton holds a Masters in Film and Media Studies from Columbia University and is a member of the Online Association of Female Film Critics and GALECA.
