Profs And Pints Plan Talks On Zombies, 'The Exorcist' In Annapolis

Press release from Profs and Pints:

Sept. 29, 2022

You're never too old to look forward to treats during the Halloween season. Walk up to the doors of Graduate Annapolis hotel this October and you'll have a chance to enjoy several of them, in the form of fascinating talks on spooky subjects being staged by Profs and Pints.

The fun gets underway on October 4th with a talk by Professor William Egginton, a Johns Hopkins University scholar of horror, on zombies, vampires, and other undead beings and the grip that they have on the American imagination.

On October 18th Professor Philippa Rappoport, a scholar of Slavic folklore, will discuss strange Slavic tales of netherworlds and the witch Baba Yaga, who lives in a hut that stands upon chicken legs and has long been dreaded by children.

To cap it all off, film scholar David Wilt will give an October 25th talk that's devilishly good fun: A look at the film The Exorcist, the real-world events that inspired it, the huge cultural impact it had, and the legion of sequels and hilariously bad imitations that it inspired. You'll be amazed to learn how many different times movie directors around the world have hurled priests out windows onto stairs.

Here are details on the upcoming October talks:

5:30 pm Tuesday, October 4th at the Graduate Annapolis hotel

Thoughts of the Undead

Advance tickets: $12

Profs and Pints Annapolis presents: “Thoughts of the Undead,” with William Egginton, professor of humanities and director of the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

The streets are crawling with them. For at least the last decade, it has been hard to turn on a TV in the evening or walk city streets on nights around Halloween without being overrun by zombies, vampires, or specters from beyond the grave. Their cultural prevalence has grown exponentially in recent years, and it shows no sign of abating. Why are our lives so filled with the dead? Or, better put, why do our dead insist on staying alive?

Come learn more about this phenomenon from William Egginton, a scholar of horror in literature and popular culture. Professor Egginton, who has captivated Profs and Pints audiences with his discussions of Krampus and other Christmas nightmares, will be delivering the perfect talk for the start of the Halloween season, a headshot that leaves you with a better understanding of both the dead and undead.

Covering a wide selection of movies, TV series, and books, Professor Egginton will discuss how modern zombies evolved from prior manifestations of the walking dead. He’ll talk about how these shambling, mindless brain-munchers—as opposed to the Caribbean sort produced by voodoo masters—were conjured into existence by George Romero’s low-budget gore fest Night of the Living Dead, which premiered in 1968, a pivotal year of social and political upheaval. He'll also discuss vampires, the sexy, speedy cousins of zombies, and why they have a special relationship to modern capitalism.

All of these, along with the spirits of the departed that have haunted such recent successful franchises as Paranormal Activity and The Conjuring, offer acute insights into our social and existential condition and teach us something about what we fear, what we are doing to our planet, and how we treat each other. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, or $13 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in.)

5:30 pm Tuesday, October 18th at the Graduate Annapolis hotel

Tales from Netherworlds

Advance tickets: $12

Profs and Pints Annapolis presents: “Tales from Netherworlds,” an evening with Baba Yaga and other dark denizens of the imagination, with folklorist Philippa Rappoport of George Washington University.

The traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain—now known as Halloween—marked the opening of a door between our world and the world of deities and the dead. In honor of that day’s approach, Philippa Rappoport returns to tell Slavic folktales about journeys to a strange netherworld beneath us.

The ticket to taking such a trip is being in possession of a magic doll. A mysterious element of folktales in East Slavic nations, they’ll open doors in the earth for you. Beware, though. Although you might escape danger on one side, you’re likely to face it on the other.

Professor Rappoport will tell the tale of one heroine, Vasilisa the Beautiful, whose doll-aided plunge into a netherworld leads her to confront the witch Baba Yaga and a host of ooglie booglie spirits. She’ll take us on a journey of our own, exploring what such folktales tell us about beliefs about women, witches, fairy godmothers, and magical helpers. We’ll tour netherworlds as places where we can find both terror and refuge. You’ll be surprised by how relevant much of what you’ll encounter is to spiritual beliefs and practices all around us today.

Professor Rappoport has also wowed Profs and Pints audiences with talks about East Slavic nations' house spirits and treacherous mermaids. Her latest effort will change how you think about Halloween. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, or $13 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in.)

5:30 pm Tuesday, October 25th at the Graduate Annapolis hotel

The Exorcist's Power

Advance tickets: $12

Profs and Pints Annapolis presents: “The Exorcist’s Power,” on the making of a legendary film and the rise of its demon spawn, with David Wilt, professorial lecturer in film studies at George Washington University.

Get ready for the perfect event to get fired up for Halloween: A look at when the devil went down to Georgetown and scared the world out of its wits. This talk might leave you saying your prayers—or laughing like hell.

William Peter Blatty’s best-selling 1971 novel The Exorcist, based on actual events in the Washington DC area in the late 1940s, gave rise to a film that was, and remains, extremely popular and influential. Premiering in theaters in 1973, The Exorcist changed how films depict devil worship, demons, and supernatural possession, much as George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead caused the “cannibal zombie” genre to replace the “voodoo zombie” genre.

The Exorcist inspired numerous devil-possession focused films, novels, and television shows from the 1970s to the present day. These include a number of official sequels or prequels, parodies, and imitations produced in the U.S. and elsewhere, many of them hilariously bad. Among them are the notorious “Turkish Exorcist” (Seytan), Italy’s Demon Witch Child and Beyond the Door, and Mexico’s Satánico pandemonium (a.k.a La sexorcista).

Wilt will discuss the original case that inspired Blatty and the best-selling book itself. He’ll also look at the filming of The Exorcist, its many cinematic offspring, and the locations in Georgetown and other sections of metropolitan Washington D.C. that factored into the book and movie.

This talk is a can’t-miss event for horror-film buffs and folks willing to sleep with the lights on for the rest of October. Your head just might be left spinning. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, or $13 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in.)

This press release was produced by Profs and Pints. The views expressed here are the author's own.