While engaging with traditional cinema, viewers typically immerse themselves in the film’s fictional world, accepting it as real and emotionally investing in the diegesis. This effect is challenged by metacinema, which exposes the fictionality of on-screen action. Initially, metafilms were perceived as experimental deviations from the norm. However, since the 1990s, self-reflexive techniques have proliferated in Hollywood, exploring mechanisms to manipulate viewers from within. Why does this period trigger popular culture’s inclination for self-reflection and self-criticism? This study proposes that the reasons are linked to the socio-political transformations of US culture, as conceptualized by cultural theorist Philip Wegner. His notion of ‘late’ postmodernism posits that the culture of the 1990s signifies the release of ‘radical political energy’ stemming from the uncertainty of the historical moment after the end of the Cold War. In this context, metacinema gains popularity as a strategy to challenge the capitalist world order. Its alienation effect stimulates critical perception of reality, urging viewers to take political action. The article traces the history of political interpretations of metacinema and conceptualizes the poetics of ‘late’ postmodernism by analyzing metafilms from Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, Spike Jonze, and Charlie Kaufman, the film franchise “Scream,” as well as cinematic allegories and movies centered on filmmaking.

One of the key theorists in cultural studies, Stuart Hall, was the author of the influential concept of encoding/decoding, which has had a significant impact on many sociocultural studies. The concept of encoding/decoding is well-known in Western academia but has not received due attention in the Russian academic community. Reception of Stuart Hall’s works in the academic community can be divided into two types: direct and indirect. Direct reception is articulated in the researcher’s explicit intention to use Hall’s theory in their own work. Indirect influence is manifested in researchers using Stuart Hall’s theory without directly referencing his works. Thus, in studies on audience reception or media representation, many scholars adopt his theory as a common reference point. Stuart Hall’s ideas have become so popular that some scholars do not see the need to cite Hall’s works or reference them without a thorough understanding of the specificity of his concepts. This paper explores the heuristic potential of Stuart Hall’s media theory and analyzes its applicability in the contemporary field of cinema studies. The study demonstrates that Stuart Hall’s media theory possesses significant heuristic potential and can be integrated into modern film research with certain modifications.

The author explores folk horror as a subgenre of horror, delving into its recent emergence and categorization as an “invented tradition.” While the term surfaced in 1970, it gained widespread recognition relatively recently. Adam Scovell was first to thoroughly examine folk-horror as a subgenre of horror in his book on the same subject, which was published in 2017. It was also him who “invented” the canon of the folk horror subgenre by proposing the concept of the “unholy trinity” —which consisted of three British films (The Witch Hunter in Chief, 1968; Blood on Satan’s Claws, 1971; The Wicker Man, 1971) — associating folk horror specifically with British cinema. However, some scholars challenged Scovell’s approach, expanding the notion to encompass other cultures and mediums, such as American, Thai, Indonesian traditions, and extending into music, cartoons, and literature. In this article, the author examines the academic reception of folk horror. The author argues that scholars show a particular interest by proposing specific analytical approaches to analyze empirical data on one hand, and by aiming to challenge the subgenre’s conventional boundaries on the other hand. The author critiques attempts to redefine folk horror yet recognizes its applicability to various national film traditions, including the Russian context, exemplified by the successful incorporation of folk horror elements in the TV series “To the Lake” (2019), specifically in the third episode of the second season.

In the contemporary era, often referred to as the “era of franchises,” horror genre projects hold a distinct and significant position. Each year, both major and independent studios announce new films, along with reboots, spin-offs, and remakes of iconic film series. Notably, in 2022, the “Hellraiser” franchise, based on Clive Barker’s 1986 novel, was relaunched on the Hulu platform. The 1987 film adaptation achieved box office success and garnered positive audience reviews, eventually earning recognition as a cult film. Over time, scholars have predominantly examined the franchise through the lenses of film studies, cultural studies, and philosophy, focusing on Barker’s images’ popularity within subcultural audiences. This article aims to demonstrate how the experience of interaction between fandom and its object of interest is transformed by digital capitalism and how fandom becomes entangled with the manifestations of digital capitalism. The analysis will delve into the phenomenon of free labor and explore concepts such as surveillance and communicative capitalism, providing a critical examination of horror franchising.

In the 21st century, an increasing number of films catering to a female audience have found a place among cult films. Prominent examples include “Titanic” (1997, James Cameron), “Mean Girls” (2004, Mark Waters), “Twilight” (2008, CatherineHardwicke), “Dirty Dancing” (1987, Emile Ardolino), “Fifty Shades of Grey” (2015, Sam Taylor-Johnson), and others. This trend is, on one hand, linked to changes in the consumption and cult status processes of films due to the prevalence of digital technologies. Discussing the ‘mainstreamization’ of cult cinema resulting from Internet development reveals not only the increased accessibility of established cult films but also a diverse array of contemporary cult films, transcending traditionally ‘male’ genres and predominantly targeting a female audience. On the other hand, the discursive nature of the ‘cult cinema’ concept suggests that academic criticism regarding the masculinity of cult cinema, particularly at the turn of the 21st century, has significantly influenced the inclusion of films designed for women within the realm of cult films. Notably, the works of researchers Jacinda Reed and Joan Hollows, published in 2003, played a pivotal role in this process. The aim of this article is to trace how the demasculinization of cult cinema has become a noticeable trend both in academic reception and in modern practices of consuming cult films.

Over the past two decades, the study of so-called marginal or non-prestigious spheres of cinema has become a priority in cinema studies, and one such direction is cult cinema. In contemporary academia, there are two largely conflicting approaches to the study and definition of this phenomenon: classical and mainstream. Drawing on the theories of modern researchers (Ernest Mathijs, Jamie Sexton, Xavier Mendik, Mark Yankovich, and others), the author identifies the crucial components of a popular film necessary to describe the process of forming its cult status, focusing on mainstream female cult cinema. Thus, the examination of the anatomy of films, their distribution, perception (fandom and anti-fandom), and cultural context forms the basis of the proposed theoretical model of the applied aspect of the study. Using this model and the approaches of Claudia Bucciferro, Dana Och, Gary Jenkins, Jonathan Gray, and Bethan Jones, the author explores the process of forming the cult status of popular films in the 21st century using the example of the “The Twilight Saga” film franchise.

The image of a deadly woman can be traced through various works of art spanning different eras. In cinematography, her figure emerged in silent movies as a vamp and a diva, later embodying the seductive and manipulative femme fatale of film noir. While the femme fatale in noir is distinctly defined, with her features easily traceable from movie to movie, the image becomes less unequivocal in neo-noir. This article seeks to explore the depiction of the femme fatale in neo-noir, questioning whether she remains a classic noir element, a trope, or a stamp transitioning into the new era of cinema, or if she is a reinterpreted figure with a fundamentally new portrayal in neo-noir, distinct from her noir predecessor. The aim is to examine the femme fatale’s image in neo-noir and to highlight a specific cinematic code wherein the image carries a set of assumptions and expectations, enabling the viewer to identify the femme fatale. Despite associations with mystery and deception, the figure of the femme fatale in neo-noir is burdened with a range of expectations. Her image is commonly understood through a blend of manipulative sexual attraction and danger, yet within this framework, more complex appeals to concepts of power, femininity, and desire emerge. The article attempts to differentiate between the ‘classic femme fatale,’ conventionally constructed in the noir tradition, relying heavily on memory and nostalgia, and the image reinterpreted by cinema in the new era.

The ways in which women are represented in popular culture are a direct reflection of the history of the development of the feminist movement because cinema is a unique space where the changes in sexual politics since the Second World War are portrayed and dramatized. First and foremost, a vampire is a female figure embodying lethal danger to humans, and at times, the undead. Throughout the history of the development of the vampire image in popular culture and cinema, vampire women exist beyond the boundaries of conventional femininity, thus exposing the oppression of women and social minorities by the dominant patriarchal ideology. The author attempts to find and describe general trends in the representation of the female vampire image in American cinema of the 21st century. While in the 20th century, vampires typically played secondary roles in movies, at the beginning of the 21st century, they were granted screen time as main characters. The development of the fourth wave of the feminist movement, reevaluation of third-wave achievements, increased opportunities for women as directors and screenwriters, the emergence of female Gothic, and other factors unavoidably influenced the vampire film genre and the portrayal of female vampires. The article examines the most vivid images of vampires in American cinema of the 21st century and analyses them from the perspective of their existence beyond the boundaries of traditional femininity, (non)conformity to traditional gender roles, and from the perspective of the monstrous-feminine— aesthetic form of the embodiment of rebellion against the patriarchal system’s values.

The article examines the reception of Vasily Vereshchagin’s art during the Soviet era. Art history texts, historical documents, and speeches by party officials adopt a rational approach to his work, enabling us to trace the development of the Soviet cult of Vereshchagin. A different type of “recycling” of his art can be found, for example, in the famous eastern/ostern movie “White Sun of the Desert.” This form of reception is largely automatic, instinctive, and hidden. The article explains why Vereshchagin became one of the most important and difficult figures for the Soviet appropriation of Russian 19th century art. Among his contemporaries, Vereshchagin was arguably the only artist who openly identified as a realist and even published an article titled “Realism.” However, in the same text he explicitly expressed his rejection of socialism, although, in the 19th century, realist art arose in alliance with leftist political ideas. Therefore, the inclusion of Vereshchagin in the Soviet pantheon of realism necessitated some falsification of his views. Another key aspect of Vereshchagin’s art — namely, his successful service to the imperial, military and foreign policy interests of the Russian state —is also very ambiguous. While loyalty to a monarchical state was discouraged in the Soviet era, Soviet apologists for Vereshchagin were fascinated by his pro-state ideas.