An expert in death studies at the University of Bath is featuring in a film being premiered in London next month.
Dr John Troyer, of the Centre for Death & Society (CDAS) at the University, features in “Of Dolls and Murder”, a documentary about the 1930s and 40s Chicago heiress Frances Glessner Lee who created macabre dolls’ houses showing murder scenes.
The dollhouses, known as the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, feature six-inch mannequins in grisly scenes, splayed with blood in the rooms of the houses.
They are on permanent loan to the Maryland medical examiner’s office in Baltimore, America and are not open to the public.
The feature-length film is narrated by cult filmmaker John Waters. It follows how these intricate dioramas are still used to train homicide detectives, despite all the technological advances in death investigation. The dioramas also provided inspiration for The Miniature Killer, a recurring villain in season seven of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Dr Troyer, who is Deputy Director at CDAS, contributed to the documentary while he was still living in his native America.
He said: “What Frances Glessner Lee successfully did was expose the supposed domestic tranquility for what it really is, which is a fraud, with scenes of violence and death and suicide.”
The film was first released at a film-festival in Washington DC in America last year and has subsequently scooped various audience awards.
It will premier at The Horse Hospital in London on 30 November. Afterwards Dr Troyer will do a question and answer session.