Alex Svensson
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alsven.bsky.social
Alex Svensson
@alsven.bsky.social
1.4K followers 350 following 110 posts
Emerson College Affiliated Faculty / Film & Media Studies PhD / Researching: Horror, Found Footage, Experimental Film & Video, Promotional Paratexts, Moral Panics

Recent at New Review of Film & TV: https://nrftsjournal.org/flash-fright
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Alex Svensson
tyburr.bsky.social
Had a little fun for my old employer at the expense of the BU snotrag who called in ICE on a Boston car wash.
You have reached the ICE tip line. Your delusion is important to us. - The Boston Globe
SATIRE: After the Allston Car Wash raid, a college student’s voicemails into the void.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:28 PM
alsven.bsky.social
Leaving Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts / Harvard Film Archive - just attended an excellent talk by Neta Alexander (Yale) on multimodal AI, labor, and disability (to put it far too simply); walking away with spinning thoughts and a big reading list…
Walking outside the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts / Harvard Film Archive; a grey walkway and steps lead to and ascend up to the main road, cutting through the green campus lawn. Fall foliage and blue-grey skies make-up the top of the image - all very autumnal and scholarly.
November 3, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Alex Svensson
kanopy.com
Wake up ghouls and goblins. It's Halloween! 🎃

Check out our horror film takeover on Kanopy. Watch something spooky tonight, like Werner Herzog’s NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979) for free and without ads or subscriptions through participating libraries and universities at https://bit.ly/4hr36cN.
Promotional image from Kanopy featuring a person with dramatic makeup looking eerie, with the text 'wake up! it's halloween'.
October 31, 2025 at 3:06 PM
alsven.bsky.social
I love this city
Image from 10/18 No Kings peaceful protest in Boston, member of the crowd holding a sign reading “in boston we dump tyranny in the harbor”
October 18, 2025 at 7:10 PM
alsven.bsky.social
Did my PhD at IU and had a wonderful experience with my professors, mentors, and colleagues in CMCL (which transformed into the Media School); deeply disappointed in IU, and proud of students for standing up for themselves and what is right.
bgrueskin.bsky.social Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · Oct 17
Administrators at Indiana University baselessly fired the student media director and ordered the student paper to cease its print edition, so it'd sure be a shame if this excellent digital front page were to be widely shared today

issuu.com/idsnews/docs...
October 17, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Alex Svensson
chanda.blacksky.app
MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact

“And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”
Dear Madam Secretary, I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters. I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education. As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples: • MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions. • MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%. • We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree. These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law. The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone. In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education. As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation. Sincerely, Sally Kornbluth CC Ms. May Mailman Mr. Vincent Haley
October 10, 2025 at 1:47 PM
alsven.bsky.social
Watched late last night - can’t say I was a fan! (and I overall very much enjoy the series and actually think the last few entries have been highlights)

boxd.it/bh0aGH
A ★★½ review of V/H/S/HALLOWEEN (2025)
Some stray thoughts: - Not quite clear on the gushing reviews for this one; nowhere near as fun, ghoulish, or formally inventive as previous entries (and something like V/H/S/99 felt in spots more lik...
boxd.it
October 5, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Alex Svensson
miriamposner.com
I can see how it’s tempting to sign an agreement to preserve an institution of higher ed, if you’re the one in charge. The problem is, once you sign that agreement, it’s no longer meaningfully a university. It’s a shell: a wood-paneled carapace protecting a rotten core.
October 3, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Alex Svensson
cwarzel.bsky.social
feels like we're living through some kind of cultural gas leak
October 1, 2025 at 4:52 PM
alsven.bsky.social
War zone indeed; who can forget the battle to retake control of Marg Tower?

youtu.be/WodT4i3uobA?...
September 28, 2025 at 9:46 PM
alsven.bsky.social
Currently rewatching Terminator 2 for the millionth time (never a bad time to do so) after reading @brofromanother.bsky.social sharp, insightful review of One Battle After Another.
Snippet of Adam Nayman’s review of One Battle After Another (2025) for The Ringer
September 28, 2025 at 1:50 AM
alsven.bsky.social
Sounds for Saturday research and data entry www.nts.live/shows/team-s...
TeamSESH w/ HNRK 28th August 2025
Playing Experimental, Grime, Club. The monthly TeamSesh NTS Radio broadcast - Once again with a takeover curated by hnrk: Featuring a blend of a multitude of genres including new musical discoveries a...
www.nts.live
September 27, 2025 at 2:48 PM
alsven.bsky.social
Yesterday’s cinema experience; seen in glorious VistaVision at @thecoolidge.bsky.social (one of only 4 locations selected to screen the film this way!) - the print/projection looked stunning, and the film was one I immediately wanted to revisit.
Lobby promotion for One Battle After Another at the Coolidge Corner Theatre (Brookline, MA)
September 27, 2025 at 12:39 PM
alsven.bsky.social
Perfect viewing for the season
September 22, 2025 at 6:42 PM
alsven.bsky.social
Thread
bencollins.bsky.social Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · Sep 18
Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.
September 18, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Reposted by Alex Svensson
kanopy.com
Boston! We’ll be in town Friday, September 19 – Sunday, September 22 for the Boston Film Festival.

#Emerson students and faculty — swing by the library on Friday, 12–4 PM for live screen printing and a free shirt.

Come hang out, say hi, and catch us at the screenings. See you soon!
Promotional poster for the Boston Film Festival featuring a statue in a park setting with blooming trees and green grass, with event details including the sponsor Kanopy and date on September 21st.
September 17, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Alex Svensson
michaelvarrati.bsky.social
With his new movie upon us, it's a great time to remind you that Paul Thomas Anderson's production company is named for Ghoulardi, a horror host portrayed by PTA's own father, Ernie Anderson. Ghoulardi's Shock Theater was a staple of Cleveland television and a foundational creature feature program.
A vintage advertisement for SHOCK THEATER starring Ghoulardi. The print image features Ernie Anderson as Ghoulardi, sporting a dramatic goatee and lit by creepy lighting. Ghoulardi clutches a skull in his hand. The print on the ad reads: SHOCK THEATER - 11:20PM FRIDAY 8 WJWTV
September 16, 2025 at 12:31 AM
alsven.bsky.social
Fascinated by this new series and excited to read this
horrorlex.bsky.social Horror Lex® @horrorlex.bsky.social · Sep 13
"She hate me!" @shanedenson.bsky.social's new monograph on BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is the first in @leverpress.bsky.social's film/minutes series, giving you a minute-by-minute look at the film and its context.
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
The cover of the book BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, with images from the film (showing Frankenstein's monster and the Bride herself) in geometrically arranged and differently colored segments.
September 13, 2025 at 3:33 PM
alsven.bsky.social
Everyone is hungry to hear his take on the male loneliness discourse in-between AI-generated ads for hallucinated meal kits and email services
Sloppy AI slop on Instagram
September 9, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Reposted by Alex Svensson
pattymo.com
Dreaming of a world where none of the (involuntary retch) content I consume requires any human creative input at all!
September 9, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Reposted by Alex Svensson
fangoria.bsky.social
Macon Blair’s THE TOXIC AVENGER is set to mop up at least $5 million in crushing medical costs thanks to an inspiring new partnership between Cineverse and national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt.
THE TOXIC AVENGER To Mop Up Medical Debt With Non-Profit Partnership
Macon Blair’s THE TOXIC AVENGER is set to mop up at least $5 million in crushing medical costs thanks to an inspiring new partnership between Cineverse and national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt.
dlvr.it
August 27, 2025 at 5:19 PM
alsven.bsky.social
Site that seduces you into the Druid cult supposedly responsible for The Shape’s drive to kill on the night of Samhain? You mean Thornhub.
Still from Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, featuring The Shape in a bad mask performing his cultish duties.
August 26, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Reposted by Alex Svensson
joshshepperd.bsky.social
Resonance (UC Press) is looking for humanities research across the following topics: Sound in Political Crisis, Sound and Social Justice, Experiments in Sound, Sound Archives and Preservation, and we're convening a permanent series that'll examine "Film and Cinema Sound" in 2026. Please circulate!
Resonance | University of California Press
online.ucpress.edu
August 19, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Alex Svensson
mayorwu.boston.gov
Last week, Boston received a letter from AG Bondi threatening to prosecute officials and withhold funds unless we cooperate with carrying out mass deportations.

The US Attorney General asked for a response by today, so here it is: stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures.
August 19, 2025 at 2:01 PM