Are You Afraid of the Monsters in the Closet?

BUFFALO, NY − Canisius University presents Monsters in the Closet, an event featuring movie screenings of Frankenstein and Gods & Monsters on Monday, March 26 at 5:00 p.m. in the Regis Room South of the Richard E. Winter ’42 Student Center. A panel discussion regarding the films will take place in the Regis Room South on Tuesday, March 27 at 6:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. 

From Salem witches and freak show oddities to evil aliens and Freddie Krueger, we turn to the monster to reflect our anxieties about race, sexuality, religion and politics. During the panel discussion, best-selling authors Christopher Bram and Sheri Holman will read from their acclaimed novels, joined by panelists W. Scott Poole, PhD, professor of history at the College of Charleston, and Rev. Michael Tunney, S.J., director of mission and identity at Canisius University, to discuss Frankenstein, vampires, witches and our fascination with fear. 

Bram is the author of nine novels, including Lives of the Circus Animals, Exiles in America, and Gods and Monsters, which became the Academy-Award winning movie starring Ian McKellen and Lynn Redgrave. His most recent book is a work of nonfiction literary history, Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America.

Holman has written four award-winning and bestselling novels published by Grove/Atlantic, including The Dress Lodger, a New York Times Notable Book and longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Award; The Mammoth Cheese, named a Publisher’s Weekly and San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year and shortlisted for the UK’s Orange Prize, and most recently, Witches on the Road Tonight (Grove/Atlantic, 2011), lauded by Cathleen Schine in the New York Review of Books, Jane Smiley in the Los Angeles Review of Books, named aNew York Times Book Reviews Editor’s Choice and Independent Publisher’s Gold Medalist for Literary Fiction. 

Frankenstein stars Boris Karloff as the screen’s most memorable monster in what many consider to be the greatest horror film ever made. Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) dares to tamper with life and death by creating a human monster (Karloff) out of lifeless body parts. Gods & Monsters, the 1998 film starring Sir Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave and Brendan Fraser; journeys back to 1957 Los Angeles. James Whale, the once-famous director of such classics as Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, is haunted by his past. His friendship with his gardener rescues Whale from his too-vivid imagination. 

The event is co-sponsored by the Undergraduate Student Association Diversity Committee and the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures & Cultures. For more information, contact Richard Reitsma, PhD, at (716) 888-2408 or via email at @email.

Canisius University is one of 28 Catholic, Jesuit colleges in the nation and the premier private college in Western New York. Canisius prepares leaders – intelligent, caring, faithful individuals – able to pursue and promote excellence in their professions, their communities and their service to humanity.