American film critic
Maitland McDonagh () is an American
film critic , writer-editor and
podcaster . She is the author of Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of
Dario Argento (1991) and other books and articles on
horror and
exploitation films , as well as about
erotic fiction and
erotic cinema . In 2022, McDonagh was inducted into the
Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards ' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.
[1] She is the founder of the
small press 120 Days Books, which became an imprint of
Riverdale Avenue Books .
Early life
McDonagh was born in
New York City , the daughter of Don McDonagh, a dance critic and author, and Jennifer Jane Tobutt,
[2] She is of Irish descent.
[3] Her grandparents, both Irish emigrants, operated the Moylan Tavern in
Morningside Heights .
[3]
She received her
Bachelor of Arts from
Hunter College and her
Master of Fine Arts from
Columbia University ,
[4] where she co-founded and edited the magazine Columbia Film Review .
[5] She was simultaneously working in the publicity department of the
New York City Ballet ,
[4] eventually becoming head of publicity.
[6]
Career
In 1991, McDonagh released her book Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds , a scholarly analysis, expanded from her master's thesis,
[7] of the films of Italian
giallo writer-producer-director
Dario Argento .
[8] An expanded 2010 reissue was named one of
PopMatters ' "Best Non-Fiction of 2010".
[9]
After leaving New York City Ballet, McDonagh taught film as an
adjunct professor at
Brooklyn College ,
[10] during which time she completed Filmmaking on the Fringe: The Good, The Bad, and the Deviant Directors
[11]
[12] and The 50 Most Erotic Films of All Time .
[13]
[14] Her freelance work during this period included film pieces for
The New York Times ,
[15]
Entertainment Weekly ,
[16]
Film Comment ,
[17]
Time Out New York ,
[18]
Premiere
[19]
Fangoria ,
[20] and other magazines and newspapers. From 1995 to 2008, she was senior movies editor for the website of the magazine
TV Guide .
[21]
[22]
Her book Movie Lust (2006) was third in the
Sasquatch Books series begun with
Book Lust by
Nancy Pearl and Music Lust by
Nic Harcourt .
[23]
[24] In 2006, she was a co-founder of the
Alliance of Women Film Journalists .
[25] She is also a member of the
New York Film Critics Online .
[26]
In 2014, McDonagh created the company 120 Days Books to republish rare 1970s and 1980s gay-erotica genre novels, beginning with a pair of two-in-one volumes: the crime thrillers Man Eater and Night of the Sadist and the supernatural fantasies Vampire's Kiss and Gay Vampire .
[27] Later in the decade, this became an imprint of
Riverdale Avenue Books .
[28]
McDonagh provides interviews and second-channel commentary on
DVD /
Blu-ray releases, including for
director
Paul Schrader 's
Blue Collar ,
[29] Dario Argento's
Tenebrae ,
[30] and
Douglas Buck 's Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America ,
[31] and
liner notes , including for the
Criterion Collection releases
The Tunnel ,
The Innocents ,
[32]
Kuroneko ,
[33] and the paired
Corridors of Blood /
The Haunted Strangler ,
[34]
Arrow Video 's
Dressed to Kill ,
[35] and Second Sight Films'
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 4K UHD.
[36] She stars in a documentary short, speaking on serial-killer cinema, on the
Criterion Collection release of
The Silence of the Lambs .
[37] Since 2016, she has been a recurring guest host of the
podcast
The Projection Booth .
[38] In 2024, she began reviewing horror and other genre films weekly at her online website, Maitland on Movies .
[39]
[40]
She has appeared in documentaries, including Night Bites: Women and Their Vampires (2003) for
WE: Women's Entertainment
[41] and
Pretty Bloody: The Women of Horror (2009), for
Canada 's
Space network,
[42] and as a panelist at film events by the
Museum of the Moving Image and others.
[43]
[44] She has served on the juries of film festivals including the 2022
Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada.
[45]
Bibliography
Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento , (London, England, Sun Tavern Fields, 1991; reissued New York,
Citadel Press , 1994)
ISBN
0-9517012-4-X ; expanded and reissued, Minneapolis, Minnesota,
University of Minnesota Press , 2010
ISBN
978-0816656073
[46]
[47]
[48]
Filmmaking on the Fringe: The Good, the Bad, and the Deviant Directors (New York,
Carol Publishing , 1995)
ISBN
0-8065-1557-0
The 50 Most Erotic Films of All Time: From Pandora's Box to Basic Instinct (New York, Carol Publishing Corporation, 1996)
ISBN
0-8065-1697-6
Movie Lust: Recommended Viewing for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason (Seattle, Wash., Sasquatch Books, 2006)
ISBN
1-57061-478-4
As co-author
As editor
Anthologies
Maitland McDonagh essays appear in:
Bryce, Allan, ed. (2000). "The Living Dead at Miskatonic Morgue [and] Sometimes They Come Back...Again". Zombie . Liskead, Cornwall, England: Stray Cat Publishing.
ISBN
978-0953326129 .
Bryce, Allan, ed. (2000). "Martine Beswicke: Sister Hyde [and] Barbara Steele: Witches and Bitches". Fantasy Females . Liskead, Cornwall, England: Stray Cat Publishing.
ISBN
0953326144 .
White, Andrew, ed. (2000). "You Gotta Have Park: Come Down by the Riverside".
Time Out Book of New York Walks . London: Time Out / Penguin.
ISBN
978-0140296228 .
Sidaris, Andy (2003). "On Andy's Gang". Bullets Bombs and Babes . Heavy Metal Books.
ISBN
978-1932413007 .
Horwath, Alexander, ed. (2004). "The Exploitation Generation. or: How Marginal Movies Came in from the Cold". The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s . Amsterdam University Press.
ISBN
978-9053564936 .
Edwards, Matthew, ed. (2007). "Writing Argento". Film Out of Bounds: Essays and Interviews on Non-Mainstream Cinema Worldwide .
McFarland & Company .
ISBN
978-0786429707 .
Nette, Andrew, ed. (2019).
"Fifty Shades of Gay: An Introduction to the Gay Adult Pulp of the 1970s" . Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950 to 1980 . PM Press.
ISBN
9781629636665 .
Nette, Andrew; Iain McIntyre, eds. (2021). "The Stars My Destination: The Future According to Gay Adult Science Fiction Novels of the 1970s". Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985 . PM Press. pp. 111–119.
ISBN
978-1629639321 . Book a finalist nominee for a
Hugo Award .
[50]
Doyle, Michael, ed. (2022). "Re-Animator: Stuart Gordon". Stuart Gordon: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series) .
University Press of Mississippi . pp. 73–85.
ISBN
978-1496837745 .
References
^
"Here are the Winners of the (Gasp!) 20th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror awards" . RondoAward.com . February 22, 2022.
Archive link
^ Kisselgoff, Anna (December 13, 2019).
"Don McDonagh, Dance Critic and Author, Dies at 87" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved March 26, 2021 .
^
a
b Molloy, Maeve (March 2012).
"Roots: The Marvelous McDonaghs" .
Irish America .
Archived from the original on December 16, 2023.
^
a
b Roberts, Michael (October 1988).
"Queen of Darkness" .
Detroit Monthly . Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
"Columbia Film Review #1 (Nov. 1982)" .
Columbia University . November 1982. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^ Tyre, Peg (September 29, 1986).
"Future Shock at the City Ballet?" .
New York .
^ Poole, W. Scott (April 27, 2010).
"Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento by Maitland McDonagh" .
PopMatters . Based originally on McDonagh's MFA thesis...
^
Kenny, Glenn (April 25, 2016).
"Dario Argento's "Deep Red" and "Tenebrae" Get Massive Blu-Ray Re-Releases" .
RogerEbert.com .
Archived from the original on March 13, 2017. Retrieved February 8, 2019 . Argento's films have inspired piles of erudite and equally obsessive commentary, beginning with Maitland McDonagh's 1991 book 'Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds.'
^ PopMatters Staff (January 23, 2011).
"The Best Non-Fiction of 2010" .
PopMatters .
Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
"Maitland McDonagh Brooklyn College Film Class Syllabus" . Summer 1995. ,
^ New York,
Carol Publishing , 1995)
ISBN
0-8065-1557-0
^
"Considering Horror Panel Discussion" .
Museum of the Moving Image . New York City. June 17, 2007.
^ New York, Carol Publishing, 1996)
ISBN
0-8065-1697-6
^
"An edition of The Fifty Most Erotic Films of All Time: From Pandora's Box to Basic Instinct (1996)" .
Open Library . Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
"FILM; Jane Campion's 'Angel' Is Another Quirky Soul" .
The New York Times . May 19, 1991. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
Maitland McDonagh articles at
Entertainment Weekly official page
^
"Straight to Hell" .
Film Comment . November–December 1990. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
"La Scorta (movie review)" .
Time Out New York . February 2–8, 2006. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
"In-Flight Films" .
Premiere . October 1991. Retrieved May 29, 2023 . ,
^
"Still Giving Us Nightmares" .
Fangoria . No. 284. June 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^ Hall, Phil (March 29, 2010).
"Maitland McDonagh: In Search of Dario Argento" .
Film Threat .
Archived from the original on January 23, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^ Staff (April 7, 2010).
"Maitland McDonagh on horror films and the dark dreams of Dario Argento" .
University of Minnesota Press .
Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^ Staff (August 14, 2006).
"Fall Trade Paperbacks: Performing Art & Film" .
Publishers Weekly .
Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
"Movie Lust: Recommended Viewing for Every Mood Moment & Reason" .
Powell's Books . Retrieved May 29, 2023 . Just as Book Lust and Music Lust supplied thousands of new reading and listening recommendations, Movie Lust continues the Lust series tradition.
^ Merrin, Jennifer (April 1, 2016).
"The Alliance of Women Film Journalists: The First Ten Years" .
RogerEbert.com .
Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
"Our Members" .
New York Film Critics Online .
Archived from the original on June 8, 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2015 .
^ Noh, David (January 8, 2015).
"Pulped!" .
Gay City News .
Archived from the original on April 5, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015 .
^
120 Days Books at
Riverdale Avenue Books . Retrieved on January 7, 2020.
^ Pizzello, Chris (May 2000).
"DVD Playback: Blue Collar " .
American Cinematographer .
Archived from the original on December 23, 2017.
^ Foster, Tyler (October 5, 2016).
"Tenebrae (Blu-ray)" .
DVD Talk .
Archived from the original on December 29, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2019 .
^ Gaita, Paul (May 20, 2021).
"Movies Till Dawn: Everyday People" . The Los Angeles Beat .
Archived from the original on June 17, 2021. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^ Smith, Jordan M. (September 23, 2014).
"Criterion Collection: The Innocents Blu-ray Review" . Ion Cinema.
Archived from the original on June 13, 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2015 .
^ Brevet, Brad (October 18, 2011).
"Blu-ray Review: 'Kuroneko' (Criterion Collection)" . RopeOfSilicon.com.
Archived from the original on March 29, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2015 .
^ Hudson, David (October 25, 2011).
"Scary Monsters 2011, Round 3" .
The Notebook (
MUBI ).
Archived from the original on December 9, 2013. Retrieved June 13, 2015 .
^ Holmes, Matt (July 29, 2013).
"Win: Dressed To Kill Blu-ray" . WhatCulture.com.
Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved June 13, 2015 .
^ Hamman, Cody (February 14, 2023).
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4K UHD release coming from Second Sight Films in April" .
JoBlo.com . Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^ Evangelista, Chris (February 13, 2018).
"New Blu-ray Releases: 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'Night of the Living Dead' From the Criterion Collection" .
/Film .
Archived from the original on February 13, 2018. Retrieved February 8, 2019 .
^ Including
"Episode 291: Night of the Creeps (1986)" .
The Projection Booth . October 4, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2023 . and
"Episode 567: Ball of Fire (1941)" .
The Projection Booth . April 6, 2022. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
"Dario Argento: Panico / Simone Scafidi" . Retrieved June 1, 2024 .
Night Visions International Film Festival .
^ Mitchell, Wendy (April 12, 2024).
"AWFJ Member News" . Retrieved June 1, 2024 .
Alliance of Women Film Journalists .
^
"Night Bites: Women and Their Vampires" .
The A.V. Club .
Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved May 29, 2023 . ...and horror-film / erotic-film author-lecturer Maitland McDonagh.
^ Zimmerman, Samuel (February 20, 2009).
"Pretty Bloody explores women in horror" .
Fangoria . Archived from
the original on March 2, 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
Kehr, David (June 15, 2007).
"Movie Guide and Film Series: It's Only a Movie: Horror Films From the 1970s and Today" .
The New York Times . Retrieved September 20, 2017 . ... panel discussion with the critics Nathan Lee, Adam Lowenstein, Maitland McDonagh and Joshua Rothkopf.
^
"Museums, Societies, etc" .
New York . February 6, 1995. p. 75. 'Beautiful Nightmares: The Films of Dario Argento' ... with Argento present for a talk with Maitland McDonagh...
^ Patterson, Adam (July 25, 2022).
"Fantasia 2022: Award Winners Announced" . Film Pulse .
Archived from the original on July 25, 2022. Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
^
"Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria " .
Vulture.com . October 23, 2018. Archived from
the original on October 23, 2018. Retrieved March 24, 2021 .
^ Fear, David (October 30, 2018).
"Which Witch is Which: In Praise of the Original Suspira " .
Rolling Stone . Archived from
the original on December 25, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2021 .
^ Kuersten, Erich (November 24, 2012).
"Book review: Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds , by Maitland McDonagh" .
Bright Lights Film Journal . Archived from
the original on March 28, 2021.
^ New York City Ballet : [souvenir program] fortieth anniversary : 1988 . WorldCat.
OCLC
430390176 .
^
"2022 Hugo Awards" .
Hugo Awards . Retrieved May 29, 2023 . Under "Best Related Work"
External links
Maitland McDonagh at
IMDb
Maitland on Movies .
Sieber, Mark.
"Dario Argento, Maitland McDonagh, and Two Evil Eyes" . HorrorDrive-In.com.
Archived from the original on February 15, 2011. Retrieved June 13, 2015 .
Interview with Maitland McDonagh at
Behind the Couch
Edelstein, David (October 13, 2002).
"Monsters Onscreen And Within" .
The New York Times . Retrieved May 29, 2023 .
"Maitland McDonagh" .
Alliance of Women Film Journalists .
Archived from the original on February 4, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015 .
International National Other