Year 10 English - Danse Macabre
The Year 10 Danse Macabre Unit takes a look at the dark and mysterious side of fiction - sinister short stories from Edgar Allan Poe, W W Jacobs, Stephen King, and Roald Dahl; poetry from Christina Rossetti; and films from the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock and the weird and wonderful world of Tim Burton. Added to this is the innovative storytelling form of Video-Books, by author Patrick Carman.
Scroll down to select an author and prepare to be scared...
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his dark and mysterious tales such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Raven". Poe treads along the thin lines between life and death, sanity and madness, and our world and the after-life. Explore the stories for yourself - read the stories or watch them performed by actors and animators. |
William Wymark Jacobs
W. W. Jacobs is best remembered for his macabre tales - particularly "The Monkey's Paw". The story revolves around a mystical monkey paw that allows its owner to have three wishes. However, the moral of the story is "Be careful what you wish for..." Listen to a reading of the story by actor John Lithgow. |
Christina Rossetti
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Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl is well-known for the dark humour in his children's books, such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "The BFG", "The Witches", and "Matilda". However, Dahl also wrote short stories for adults - his "Tales of the Unexpected". "The Landlady", "Lamb to the Slaughter", and "The Man from the South" all exhibit Dahl's darkly comic wit with tension-filled narratives right upto the twists at the end. |
Stephen King
Stephen King is synonomous with the horror genre. He has written many novels that have been adapted for the screen, with modern-classics such as "Carrie", "Pet Cemetry", "'Salem's Lot", and "Misery" amongst them. King also writes a range of short stories also dealing with the supernatural - "Crouch End" being just one of them. |
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was widely known as the "Master of Suspense" with his films revolutionising the film industry. Films such as "Psycho", "Vertigo", "Rear Window", and "Dial M for Murder" are just a selection of Hitchcock classics that have been remade in recent times. Although Hitchcock's films now look a little dated, he is still my favourite film maker. Have a look at the Hitchcock interview and hear his views on what he termed "The Fright Complex". |
Tim Burton
Tim Burton is famed for his dark and quirky films, such as "Beetlejuice", "Edward Scissorhands", "The Nightmare Before Christmas", and "Corpse Bride". He is one of the most visionary directors working today and his films all have a very definite sinister and macabre atmosphere. View the film trailers from a large selection of his films from the past three decades and try to identify common features that run throughout Burton's work (also watch his first short film "Vincent" from 1982). |
Patrick Carman
Patrick Carman is the award-winning author of many books for young adults and children. His background in game design and technology has been heavily drawn upon in his new work "Skeleton Creek", and its sequel "Ghost in the Machine" (to be released October 2009). This new form of novels, termed V-Books, combines both written text and video to create an interactive and dynamic story-telling medium whcih is an exciting way to read a book! |
Monster LegacyUniversal Studios have produced the website Monster Legacy to chart the history of horror films in the last 86 years from Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman upto modern day creatures of the dark. Great for learning about the development of film-making in the last century.
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