Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2026

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Program

Liberal Studies

Advisor

Jerry Carlson

Subject Categories

Film and Media Studies

Keywords

Auteurism, science-fiction, horror, popular culture

Abstract

This thesis seeks to establish the work of the filmmaker Joe Dante as a catalyzing and anarchic force let loose inside larger, dumber superstructures: linear narrativity, Hollywood, America, etc. It works to read the genre films he worked on—many of them made as popular entertainment for mainstream movie studios—as moments of actual subversion, allocating status quo (studio system) resources to create a biting-back against American imperial norms in the lingua franca of Marx and the Marx Brothers: gummy leisure-seeking stupidity and Gremlin transformation. This thesis seeks to argue that to understand Dante’s work is to understand pop transfiguration itself. This is to say: films theorizing themselves according to film logic, rather than some other imposed apparatus. The Gremlin only functions so long as the film cuts to the next shot, allowing him to transition from cuddly to goopy. And so this thesis is written in the units most precious to Dante’s cinema, which is to say, Double Features.

Why must Dante proceed as a(n un)free radical inside staider and more corporate organizations? Dante embodies the comparatively rare reality of diligent film craftsman with a distinctive authorial voice. As such, this thesis also works to liberate film writing (and hopefully film watching…) from the shackles of misunderstood, misapplied auteurism. What good is being known as an auteur filmmaker when the contemporary content-making landscape disallows you from making movies? And so after spending time with the images on their own terms, this essay moves into conversation with Dante himself, conducted in as friendly terms as possible: moving images via video chat, a reaching out to the image which, in this case, is the man who imagined the images in the first place.

Download

Share

COinS