Sasha Greenwald

BFA Fashion Design Collections

Title: Suburban Boredom

Updated: July 25th

Suburban Boredom is an exploration into the aesthetics of teen slasher films that reflect boredom and monotony, as seen within the suburban landscape. Teen slasher films are overwhelmingly set in spaces representative of security, affluence, and upper middle class status, like summer camps and college campuses. However, the suburb is the most prevalently employed setting in the slasher genre.

Teen slasher films shock and offend and disturb. It is a 90-minute adrenaline stupor— a collapse of blood and guts. These films offer relief from suburban monotony through campy, lo-fi sex and violence. At the same time, they also demonstrate a frantic avoidance of boredom: disengaged, pleasure-seeking kids misbehaving— hot and reckless. Housewives popping painkillers, husbands staying late, everyone keeping secrets.

These films show us what boredom looks like through the lens of suburbia; the behaviors and artifacts that are manifested through suburban routine. School uniforms and manicured lawns and windows trimmed in white. Generic garments like letterman jackets, cheer sweaters and tartan skirts. Kitschy interiors with damask curtains, pastel kitchen cabinets, and patterned wallpaper. Floral bedsheets with eyelets and lace. This is where the domestic becomes dangerous and the monotonous becomes monstrous.

Sasha is a multidisciplinary designer from the suburbs of Westchester, NY. He likes movies about danger and teenage melodrama.