Sightings Articles
"Let the Night Roar with It": Dark Tourism at Jonestown by Brian Collins
The title of this essay is a quote from the last recorded sermon of the Revered Jim Jones. The speech was accompanied by an exultant ululation from him and his people – a penultimate act of defiance against the U.S. government emissaries they believ...
May 20, 2010
Our Savage God Revisited: The Case of Manson by Brian Collins
The year that just came to its close marked the 40th anniversary of the murders committed by Charles Manson's "Family," and three related events renewed interest in the crimes and the figure behind them. In November a 41-year-old Los Angeles man mad...
January 7, 2010
Religion, Vengeance, and Hospitality in The Last House on the Left: The Long Strange Journey of a Myth Motif by Brian Collins
"Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof." -Genesis 19.8 Wes Craven's notorious 1972 exploitati...
April 9, 2009
Jesus Is Just Alright — Brian Collins
Recently released on DVD, David Di Sabatino's 2005 documentary Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher tells the story of Lonnie Frisbee, a significant figure in the Jesus People Movement, a strain of evangelical Christianity that emerged fr...