Call for Film/TV/Video Game Reviewers (Extended Deadline)

deadline for submissions: 
February 15, 2025
full name / name of organization: 
The Incredible Nineteenth Century: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Fairy Tale
contact email: 

 

The Incredible Nineteenth Century: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Fairy Tale (I19) seeks to publish the best scholarship on the century that was, in many ways, the time period in which the modern genres of science fiction and fantasy began, and in which the academic study of fairy tale and folklore has its roots. 

The editors of I19 also welcome thoughtful, critically engaged 1000-2500 word media reviews of classic and contemporary films, streaming tv shows, video games and more that incorporate "incredible nineteenth-century" elements into both their forms and/or content. Blended historical genres like steampunk, neovictorianism, and magical realism are welcome. The media text might be set in the nineteenth century (Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos [2023]) or 'haunted" by facets of nineteenth-century culture such as its legacy of slavery (Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele [2017]), its settler colonialism (Blood Quantum, dir. Jeff Baranaby [2019]), or its literary traditions (Lisa Frankenstein, dir. Zelda Williams  [2024]). While we are very happy to accept individual reviews of a classic or new film,  video game, or streaming series, we are also very excited to work with contributors who might want to provide an "overview" of some cultural trend that can be traced across two or three media texts.  Contributors working on cultural production by marginalized communities are especially encouaged to submit. Some ideas one might consider thinking about include:

- Maritime Horror (ex. AMC's The Terror; video games like The Return of the Obra Dinn) 

- Frankensteinia (ex. Poor Things, The Frankenstein Chronicles, Lisa Frankenstein, Guillermo Del Toro's upcoming Frankenstein

- Frontier Horror (Prey, Bone Tomahawk)

- The Afterlives of Slavery (Get Out, The Underground Railroad, Kindred)

- International Zombies (ex. Train to BusanOjuju) 

- Victoriana (The Nevers, The Irregulars)

- Steampunk and gaming 

- Media shaped by Fairy Tales like Bluebeard, Pinocchio, and more 

- 19th century Automata and the relation to contemporary AI

- Folk Horror (ex. The Lighthouse, Apostle, The Excavation of Hob's Barrow)

- Animation and the incredible 19th century (fairy tales and the Disney/Dreamworks tradition) 

- The Mike Flanagan universe

Thhe editors are open to creative takes. We want your most intellectually challenging but also your most readable critical takes. Please contact the Media Review editor, Dr. Joe Conway (jpc0018@uah.edu), for any and all queries.  View our Author Guidelines for submissions and our About the Journal page for the journal's policies.

We accept submissions on a rolling basis, though to ensure inclusion i n our Fall 2025 issue, please submit to jpc0018@uah.edu by February 15.