Considering the trend of retro aesthetics and media being popular again in recent years, particularly with TV shows like ‘Stranger Things’ and analogue horror series on YouTube, ‘Uncanny Sally’ fits into this trend and explores a more underground, feminist approach to this arguably more male-dominated trending genre. The films featured are independent and low budget, many of which have rarely been shown at festivals or other screening events. Some of them have recently gained attention online through ‘lost media’ and analogue horror pages and forums online, while others have been found in archives and artist collections. Overall, these are pieces of underground artworks, authentically made in the 70s and 80s, rather than something modern made to mimic these retro aesthetics. What is the value of re-discovering these unseen retro feminist artworks? Considering the difference between audiences back then when these films were made, and the perspective of modern audiences, it is important to think about the difference in audience reception and engagement with these films. For example, initially when ‘Possibly in Michigan’ was released, it briefly aired on TV and many audiences did not engage with it or connect with the message Cecelia Condit was trying to portray.

Skip forward almost 40 years to 2020, where subgenres and aesthetics like ‘Weirdcore’ and ‘Analogue Horror’ began to emerge online on platforms like TikTok and Reddit, and as people discovered this film, it became an iconic piece of media visually and creatively leading these subgenres. People posted videos with audios from the film and spread word about, and it largely grew in popularity with Gen Z audiences online. People found meaning in the film and things to relate to, like its feminist stances, its queer subtext, and its beautifully experimental music and visuals. A film that was initially dismissed by the mass and forgotten has become something new for young audiences to enjoy and connect with. Another result of having a modern progressive reading of these films, is that a completely different or negotiated reading is possible. A new audience may choose to take away a completely different message from the film or even understand its plot and meaning differently to how it was intended. Considering the short film ‘Living Dolls’, being about a man who gets trapped in a room full of female mannequin that start to talk to him, even though this film features a main male character and is a film made by a man, it is possible to take a feminist approach to this film with its ending where the female mannequins win by turning him into a mannequin too and the other female characters in the film forget about him.

Although audiences back in the 80s may not have chosen to take this approach and naturally sided with the main character, even feeling bad for him, many modern audiences may choose to align more with the mannequins fighting back against him and winning in the end. This is the main reason we chose to include this film in ‘Uncanny Sally’ – even though it is not feminist and female directed in essence, a modern feminist reading of this film is useful and arguably quite entertaining. To conclude, we hope that these resurfaced retro horror films and the concept of the uncanny and ‘femgore’ resonate with modern audiences in a way that they couldn’t have in the past, shedding light on female anxieties and experiences through history and how it has changed over time in real life, and through its representation in media.